Homeowners

Jay Dackman's Canton home is bright, open, contemporary and directly on the waterfront at the Anchorage Marina. The three-story, six-level brick townhouse is filled with framed puzzles of Impressionist masterpieces, hung as they are completed by the 54-year-old attorney and real estate investor. In addition to the puzzles, a hobby which Dackman says relaxes him after a busy day, he revels in the whimsical collectibles placed on every wall and in most corners of his 2,000-square-foot interior.

A suspected Roland Park burglar plummeted to his death from a third floor balcony after being spotted by the owner of the home he was apparently robbing, police said. Police responded to a call for a burglary in progress on the 4500 block of Roland Avenue shortly after noon on Monday. Returning home, the resident had seen the man on the balcony at the back of his house, police said. The 55-year-old suspected burglar attempted to slide over the balcony and down the outside of the house, but lost his footing and fell 26 feet onto a concrete walkway, police said.

Beginning this week, Maryland's Department of Assessments and Taxation can begin penalizing homeowners who received a homestead credit this year as a result of deception. Penalties will be issued on an ad hoc basis as the department learns of violators, said Robert E. Young, Maryland's director of assessments and taxation. "It's going to be interesting to see how many of them there are," he said. The penalty, approved overwhelmingly by the General Assembly, is equal to 25 percent of "the amount of the property tax credit improperly received," according to the fiscal and policy analysis of the law. Homeowners, of course, still are on the hook for reimbursing the state, with interest, the amount they inappropriately saved by using the credit.

The deadline to apply for a property tax credit that, on average, cuts more than $1,000 off a homeowner's tax bill, has been extended until the end of October. Maryland residents can apply for the Homeowners' Property Tax Credit through October 31, said Robert E. Young, director of the state Department of Assessments and Taxation. The agency has extended the deadline from Sept. 1. Application numbers have jumped in recent years, as people's jobs or overtime income has vanished, and Young said he didn't want the newly eligible to miss out. “We administratively can extend the program until October the 31 st ,” he said.

Three years after the official end of the longest recession since World War II, nearly one in five mortgaged homes in the Baltimore metro area was still underwater, according to r eal estate data firm  CoreLogic. In the second quarter of this year, 18.3 percent of Baltimore-area residences with a mortgage -   116,301  properties - were worth less than what their owners owed, the firm announced this month. Still, that's an improvement. In the first quarter of 2012, 19.7 percent of homes in and around Baltimore were upside-down, the number-crunching company said.

Wisconsin transplant Dana Ostrenga has spent the past 14 years on the south side of Baltimore. The 37-year-old NASA scientist lived in Federal Hill and then in Washington Village, also known as Pigtown. When it was time for a change, she didn't want to move far, but she did have a list of requirements. "I wanted a brand-new, turnkey rehab," she said, ticking off the items on her list. "I wanted location, a parking pad, lots of natural light, two stories, a finished basement, three bedrooms, two baths, and I wanted it to be diverse and kid-friendly.

The reminders are coming more frequently now, but plenty of homeowners don't seem to have gotten the message. More than 100,000 Maryland homeowners haven't yet applied for a property-tax break known as the homestead credit , which this year is reducing the average Baltimore recipient's bill by more than $1,000. Some owners have received the break for years, but they'll lose it next tax year if they don't turn in an application by Dec. 31. The General Assembly voted the requirement into law five years ago in an effort to root out homestead credits going to non-homesteads such as rentals.

An Owings Mills man has pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud after prosecutors alleged he took money from at least 48 homeowners to help them get loan modifications, then stole the monthly payments they thought were going to their lenders, the state said Thursday. Rodney Getlan, 45, could be sentenced to as many as 90 years in prison. The state is seeking a 40-year sentence with 10 years suspended, along with restitution of about $400,000 to the victims, the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said.

Nearly 3,000 Maryland homeowners received almost $225 million in relief as of the end of June from the national settlement with five mortgage servicers, state officials announced Wednesday. The money was distributed to homeowners in the form of mortgage modifications and refinancing, principal reductions, deficiency waivers and short sale assistance, according to a statement from the office of Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler. Gansler's office cited financial data from the first progress report on the settlement, prepared by the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight.

Wells Fargo is inviting borrowers struggling with their mortgage payments to an assistance event at the Baltimore Convention Center next week. The Sept. 6 workshop, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., will be held in Hall D. The convention center is at 1 W. Pratt St. Homeowners whose mortgages are owned or serviced by Wells Fargo can attend the free event. The company, which suggests signing up by Sept. 4 , says borrowers will be able to sit down with "home preservation specialists" to go over options.