Maryland Sees Huge Increase in First Quarter Foreclosures

Maryland, despite the state government’s efforts to create foreclosure prevention services for citizens and to hold bankers and lending organizations accountable for the housing crisis, saw its first quarter foreclosure statistics rise drastically, as more than 11,000 homes were foreclosed on in the first part of the year.

Now, roughly 1 in every 200 homes in Maryland is in some stage of foreclosure, just barely less than the national average. What’s more, this represents a 500% increase from the first quarter of 2007. Most of the foreclosures in Maryland are concentrated in the urban areas surrounding Baltimore, but more recently the trend has expanded to suburbs and even farther away cities like Towson, and suburbs surrounding Washington D.C. like Bethesda and Silver Springs.

Buyers looking for good deals can find huge discounts on foreclosure properties in Maryland, but it would be worth seeing what happens over the course of the rest of the year before signing on for a long term investment. Experts are predicting that things could get worse before they get better for the state in 2008, and if the market hasn’t hit bottom yet, there could be many more foreclosures on the way before the year is out.

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