Homeowners

One in four Maryland borrowers owed more on his or her home than it was worth at the start of this year, according to CoreLogic's newest estimates -- a lot of people, but not quite as many as the company thinks were underwater last year. The real estate data firm put the tally at just over 335,000, down from 365,000 in the final three months of last year and the lowest figure since the summer of 2010. Maryland ranked 9th among states with the highest levels of negative equity.

It looked so odd: Two sets of homeowners in Howard County seemed to be getting property-tax credits that added to their bill, rather than subtracting. When I stumbled upon them in a database of Howard property taxes that we'll (fingers crossed) have online for you all to search later this month, I stared blankly at the pair. It had to be a mistake, right? Right. Howard County officials, investigating after I inquired, said the stealth tax labeled as a homestead credit was a miscalculation by the state Department of Assessment and Taxation that got by the county's finance department.

Homeowners hoping to see benefits from a national mortgage settlement — and others struggling with their payments — can attend a workshop in Baltimore Tuesday for information and assistance. The Maryland attorney general's office said the event will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 4414 Frankford Ave. Nonprofit housing counselors and others who work with distressed borrowers will be on hand. The settlement, with the country's five largest mortgage servicers, was over allegations of widespread foreclosure and mortgage-servicing abuses.

It happens after every natural catastrophe. Once the winds die down, the water recedes or the fire is doused, shady contractors appear on the scene to make affected homeowners victims twice over. "You see a rash of this after a natural disaster," says Bill Gruhn, chief of Maryland's consumer protection division. "Sometimes they take the money and don't do the work; sometimes they take the money and terribly overcharge people. And sometimes they take the money and do very poor work.

As a homeowner with property bordering the proposed Laurel Gardens redevelopment, I'm disappointed that the Laurel City Council chose to ignore the concerns of homeowners and residents of the complex Wednesday night, May 30. The council's decision to approve the redevelopment put the interests of Laurel Realty, with its owners' long-time connections to Laurel officials, above the interests of many area homeowners and tenants of Laurel Gardens....

The Anne Arundel County Council approved a $1.2 billion annual operating budget Wednesday for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The budget, adopted 6-1, ends furloughs for county employees but does not include raises. For property owners, it creates approximately a 3-cent increase in the property tax rate, the maximum amount allowed by law. The coming year's 94.1-cent tax rate would mean, for example, that owner of a home assessed at $261,200 will pay about $128 more in property taxes, according to county finance officials.

The Fisher family envisioned a retreat in the backyard of their Baltimore County home — an easy, elegant outdoor living space that would reflect their passion for nature. "I grew up in the country," says Alex Fisher, an investment executive. "There were rock gardens, ponds, streams and a waterfall where we would sometimes camp out. " "We've always enjoyed being outdoors," adds Laurie Fisher, a fashion consultant. "Our son, Davis, will leave for college soon, and we're really embracing this time we have with him. We're happiest relaxing with family and friends.

Kristina Suson's home wasn't part of the city's tax sale Monday, but it was a close call. Baltimore places liens on properties for unpaid property taxes, water bills and other municipal debts, then puts the liens up for auction every spring — allowing investors to buy them and either collect or move to foreclose. The city auctioned liens on about 10,600 properties on Monday, finding buyers for 6,545 of them and raising $20 million. Suson ended up on this year's list, to her surprise, after the state retroactively reduced a property tax credit she'd received in 2009.

A recent analysis offers some good news, at least in the short-term, for those individuals (like me!) who are trying to sell their homes -- outside of Maryland, at least. The rate of those who are seriously behind on their mortgage payments -- a leading warning sign of pending foreclosures -- was a bit better in March at 7 percent nationwide, an analysis by real estate data firm CoreLogic. The rate is down from 7.5 percent in March 2011 and at its lowest point since July 2009. Maryland, though, inched upward from 7.8 percent to 8 percent.

Housing experts say homeowners can wait as long as nine months to get approval to sell their home as a short sale, and efforts are underway to push lenders to give a prompt answer. HouseLogic says homebuyers may find themselves in the position of having to send multiple requests to their lender to ask for approval for them to sell their house for less than they owe while a potential buyer waits in the wings. HouseLogic, a service offered by the National Association of Realtors, provides information on homeownership, such as taxes and insurance.