Maryland Business

By: jackie.sauter

Monthly foreclosure reports are becoming excruciatingly predictable, I think. They seem to me just to underscore the fact, which is becoming rapidly clearer, that Fort Myers, Fla.; Las Vegas; and various McMansion suburbs in Southern California, are not great places to own a house.

RealtyTrac’s January foreclosure numbers came out yesterday, and the good news is that Maryland reported a 16.72 percent drop from last month, although foreclosures are about flat compared to the same time last year. Nationally, foreclosures dropped about 10 percent.

 

Rate Rank	State Name	NOD	LIS	NTS	NFS	REO	TOTAL	1/every x HU (rate)	% change from Dec 08	% change from Jan 08
—	U.S.	46,681	52,435	80,986	27,520	66,777	274,399	466	-9.56	17.77
16	Maryland	0	2,878	0	412	407	3,697	627	-16.72	0.43

 

Don’t be misled by the two Maryland columns with the zeroes in them, “NOD” (notice of default) and NTS (notice of trustee sale). Those are not the result of some sort of anti-foreclosure policy. Maryland law stipulates that the foreclosure process actually begins with the Lis Penden (LIS), or notification of a pending lawsuit, which is sent after a homeowner defaults on his or her mortgage. In other states, such as California, Nevada and Utah, less liberal real estate laws make it such that the first default gets the foreclosure ball rolling and puts a homeowner’s property in peril.

An interesting perspective on these recently-released numbers, I think, is this: In January, 274,399 houses went into foreclosure nationwide, while Bloomberg reports that last year saw only about 605,000 housing starts in the U.S. This points to a terrible ratio between new versus existing housing stock for potential first-time homebuyeres, and bodes terribly for those who depend on the construction industry.

ROBBIE WHELAN, Business Writer