Foreclosure Crisis

In many respects, Maryland is weathering the recession better than most other states, but not when it comes to foreclosures. The number of foreclosure events -- either final dispositions of foreclosures or court filings -- increased in the final three months of 2009 to nearly 17,000. That's 13.4 percent higher than the previous quarter and nearly 70 percent higher than the previous year. Hardest hit by far is Prince George's County, followed by Baltimore City. The foreclosures have crippled the state's housing market and driven down real estate values, compounding economic woes that could last for years.

We wonder whether the thousands of hardworking Maryland families who have received counseling and assistance through Governor Martin O'Malley's response to the national foreclosure and subprime lending crisis would agree with Marta Hummel Mossburg's assertion that it has all been a waste of effort ("State fails to stem the tide of foreclosures," Jan. 5). Maryland's response to the crisis is considered among the most comprehensive in the nation because it has had tangible benefits.

More than a year after Maryland officials set out to quell the foreclosure crisis with some of the most aggressive prevention programs in the nation, the number of homeowners on the brink is again on the rise. "We're not doing a heck of a lot better now than we were before," Gov. Martin O'Malley said in a recent interview. "So we've got to try to do something different to try to get the numbers moving in a better direction." The O'Malley administration is working on a new tactic: using mediators to ensure lenders are making a good-faith effort to renegotiate more affordable loan terms, and to ensure homeowners understand those terms.

Here are excerpts from a speech on the nation's foreclosure crisis delivered by James H. Carr, chief operating officer of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, at an April 3 symposium at the University of Baltimore School of Law, co-sponsored by Baltimore Neighborhoods Inc. Foreclosure is the death of an important American dream - the dream of homeownership. It's a financial death for many families, often leading them to financial ruin. It's also a death of the prospect of passing significant wealth to children.

Maryland and other states now receiving federal housing recovery money are taking the first steps toward stabilizing neighborhoods hurt by home foreclosures, says a report released Thursday by Columbia-based Enterprise Community Partners Inc. Enterprise, a nonprofit affordable-housing investor, analyzed plans by some of the 306 state and local governments that received grants through a $3.92 billion Department of Housing and Urban Development program to...

Most of the homes in Dundalk's historic "Ships" district date to the 1920s, when they provided housing for steel mill workers at Sparrows Point. A poster from that era hanging in a Dundalk office features a drawing of Uncle Sam assuring buyers that the homes were "scientifically and substantially built." Until recently, the compact neighborhood of well-maintained stucco townhouses and duplexes off Dundalk Avenue was attracting new families and investors. But the national foreclosure crisis has hit those short, narrow streets hard, with at least eight vacant homes in various stages of foreclosure.

Home mortgage foreclosures continue unabated, feeding the economic crisis gripping America, while those charged with fighting the decline are doing perilously little to keep families in their homes. In Maryland, the number of homes in foreclosure grew by 36 percent in the third quarter of this year compared with the previous quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. In November, more than 78,000 properties were repossessed nationwide, and the Federal Reserve now predicts that new foreclosures will reach about 2.25 million before the year ends.

Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell should to be applauded for his efforts to encourage the state's 33,000 lawyers to volunteer to help people at risk of losing their homes in the foreclosure crisis ("A cry to help save homes in Maryland," July 8). While Legal Aid, the state's largest provider of free legal help to low-income Marylanders, has devoted substantial resources to helping people under the threat of foreclosure in Prince George's County, Baltimore and throughout the state, the staggering numbers of homeowners falling behind in their mortgage payments far exceeds the number our resources enable us to help and now includes many homeowners who do not financially qualify for our services.

Foreclosure counseling by black churches. Expanding the numbers of black workers and entrepreneurs in "green businesses." And urging more federal funding for programs to reduce infant mortality rates among black babies. These were among the solutions offered by business, community and political leaders in the Greater Baltimore Urban League's report, "The State of Black Baltimore," a collection of essays and analyses on some of the most vexing problems confronting the city's black residents.

For more than 13,000 Maryland homeowners whose houses are in foreclosure and 2 million more across the nation likely to face the same fate this year, a rescue package tentatively agreed to yesterday in the U.S. Senate is likely to provide only limited relief. It offers $100 million to provide counseling, bonds to fund refinancing and tax credits for purchasers of foreclosed houses and $4 billion in grants for local governments to buy foreclosed properties to protect neighborhoods. They're all useful steps, but they are unlikely to do more than ease the impact of the housing bust and allow both parties to say they are attacking the problem.