Government Initiatives to curb Maryland Foreclosures

Increasing number of foreclosures has been a growing concern not only for the homeowners but also for the state and local level officers. Lot of initiatives has been taken at different levels in almost all states in order to decrease the foreclosure activity and also save the real estate market from crashing. People have become aware that even the local and self governments can help them guide saving their homes and protect them from mortgage malpractices.

The efforts made by the government authorities is clearly seen when Maryland foreclosure homes declined by 23% in June when compared to the month of May this year. While the national drop in foreclosure rate was only 3%, 23% decline is a significant value comparatively. The credit can be given to relief law that came in to force from 13th April this year approved by Governor Martin O’Malley. The law bans prepayment penalties and the time for foreclosures is now 150 days from previous 15 days.

The drastic changes were made when reports about Maryland foreclosure homes suggested that Maryland foreclosures had increased by 617% in first quarter of this year as compared to the first quarter in 2007. The first quarter of this had Maryland foreclosure homes ranking 12 in the nation with 11,380 listings. The foreclosures in Montgomery, Prince George’s, Anne Arundel and Baltimore together contributed to 72.7% of Maryland foreclosure homes.

When we talk about foreclosure homes in Maryland we cannot stop ourselves from discussing about foreclosures in Frederick County. Maryland foreclosure homes have seen drastic changes with changes here over a period of time. In 2005 there were only 53 foreclosure homes in Frederick, increased to 100 in 2006 and jumped to 898 in 2007. Looking at the current nationwide scenario it is not surprising to know that the figure has crossed 964 from January this year till the month of June. In similar lines of what is being done in other states, Frederick County’s Housing and Community Development is directed to investigate the ways other counties have implemented to check the foreclosure activities. Even the finance department is working to see if they could get enough funding for these activities. The initiative has to be successful because all the departments are working in synchronization and putting in their maximum efforts.

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