foreclosures

• Maryland

Pugh administration seeks to limit legislation that would block water-bill tax sales in Baltimore

The Pugh administration is attempting to weaken a General Assembly bill that would permanently ban Baltimore City from placing liens against homes, churches and other properties over unpaid water bills.

By Luke Broadwater

Feb 1, 2019

• Opinion

Nonprofit seeks to stem foreclosures in Baltimore

No one should spend the holidays wondering if they’ll have a roof over their heads come January. Let’s work together to keep Baltimoreans in their homes and make the city a safer, more vibrant place for everyone.

• Business

Consumer advocates warn of another potential mortgage crisis in Maryland, call for legislative help

Another mortgage crisis may be on the horizon as out-of-state hedge funds buy up distressed loans and seek to foreclose on people’s houses, consumer advocates warned Thursday during a rally where they called for a legislative fix.

By Meredith Cohn

Nov 29, 2018

• Business

Baltimore has most distressed home sales in nation, report says

20.7 percent of homes sold in Baltimore, Towson and Columbia during the second quarter of 2018 were distressed, a greater portion than in any of 51 other metropolitan areas surveyed.

By Christina Tkacik

Jul 26, 2018

• Maryland

Rental scam resurfaces in Parkville, police say

A man was recently scammed by another man posing as a landlord who rented out a Parkville condo. County law enforcement officials say they have seen before: a shyster breaks into a vacant home, then posing as landlord offers it for rent, takes the deposit and disappears.

By Libby Solomon

Jul 18, 2018

• Maryland

With ownership in question, lawsuit stalls over deadly West Baltimore collapse

Attorney Tierra Gregory has searched the past year for those responsible when a vacant house crashed down and killed a retiree in West Baltimore. As the months pass by, her doubts grow. Will anyone be accountable for Thomas Lemmon’s death?

By Tim Prudente

Jul 12, 2018

• Maryland

Collapse: The rise and deadly fall of a Baltimore rowhouse

The rise and fall of 900 N. Payson St. reveals the story of Baltimore’s blight — how thousands of good homes have come to ruin, and how one of them turned deadly.

By Tim Prudente

Jul 12, 2018

• Opinion

Five decades after Fair Housing Act, segregation continues

Five decades after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for “open housing” and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act into law, segregation continues to take a financial toll on communities of color at all income levels.

• Opinion

Don't fall victim to the reverse mortgage con

Recently the Trump administration proposed changes to H.U.D.’s reverse mortgage program: raising premiums, tightening loan limits and making foreclosure easier. These changes merely worsen a horrific product through which elderly victims are already being conned out of their home equity.

• News

For Sale: Boarded-up, crumbling former corner store assessed at $5,000. Price: $1.76 million

Some properties accumulate exorbitant amounts of debt during the city's tax sale process, including vacant and abandoned property with $1 million or more in fines and interest.

• Harford

Harford County recoups more than $934,000 in delinquent property taxes in 2017 tax sale

Harford County held its annual tax sale Monday, recouping more than $934,000 in property taxes owed on 404 properties by selling tax lien certificates in an online auction.

By David Anderson

Jun 20, 2017

• Baltimore City

Baltimore officials manually reviewing properties on tax sale list to find errors

Baltimore officials are manually checking the city tax sale files to remove all state and federal property, part of a broad review of the controversial process that helps the city collect some $20 million a year in unpaid bills.

• Business

Deutsche Bank reaches $95 million settlement with Maryland related to housing crisis

Deutsche Bank has reached a $95 million settlement with Maryland stemming from the housing crisis that will funnel $80 million to provide new mortgages or mortgage relief to eligible consumers as well as help finance affordable housing.

By Lorraine Mirabella

Jun 1, 2017

• News

Swept up in city tax sales, Baltimore churches at risk of losing property to California investor

More than $6,000 in unpaid water bills sent the century-old Baptist church to tax auction last year and a California investor is now seeking to foreclose on it.

• Map:

A California investor has bought liens from Baltimore authorities on churches across the city

• Maryland

Ravens, Orioles stadium liens bought at auction amid water bill disputes

Scanning a list of properties that owed money to Baltimore authorities last week, Alexander Diener noticed something unusual — M&T Bank Stadium had an unpaid debt of $5,400 and a lien on it was being put up for auction Monday.

By Ian Duncan

May 15, 2017

• Opinion

'Vulture capital' firm preys on Baltimore

In 2010, Joann Rodriguez suffered a health crisis precipitated by her multiple sclerosis. She could no longer keep her job with the AARP, but it took her two years before she received any disability benefits. After draining all of her retirement savings, she finally fell behind on her mortgage. Three weeks ago, Joann came home to find a note taped to her front door. It said that she has until March 28th to vacate her home. It is being foreclosed on by a Wall Street vulture

• Business

With tight inventory, Baltimore region home prices rise 2 percent as sales dip

Home prices in the Baltimore region increased in February and sales dipped slightly, as inventory tightened in markets and distressed sales, such as foreclosures, declined.

By Natalie Sherman

Mar 11, 2017

• Opinion

Don't let Trump gut financial protection bureau

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is fighting to protect 99 percent of Americans from predatory products and services. Yet the 1 percent of Wall Street elites who are running our government are trying to put the agency out of business. Don't let them; we can't afford to lose the agency that is fighting for us.

• Business

Baltimore home prices rose nearly 7 percent in January

Baltimore area home prices continued to climb in January, as steady demand and fewer foreclosures pushed a streak of year-over-year gains into the eleventh month.

By Natalie Sherman

Feb 10, 2017

• Business

Downtown Baltimore office tower to be sold in foreclosure sale

A 19-story office tower in downtown Baltimore is scheduled to be sold at a foreclosure auction on Feb. 9.

By Natalie Sherman

Feb 3, 2017

• News

PACE program seeks to spur investment in clean, efficient energy across Maryland

Maryland counties are increasingly signing on to an unorthodox program that makes it easier for owners of large office buildings and warehouses to pay for green energy projects via a surcharge on their property tax bills.

By Scott Dance

Dec 18, 2016

• Business

State launches new program aimed at homebuyers with student loan debt

Maryland has launched a new program that will pay off student loan debt for homebuyers who purchase certain properties through the state.

By Natalie Sherman

Nov 21, 2016

• Business

Critics say HUD sales of delinquent mortgages are hurting, not helping

Two years ago, Michelle Patterson's delinquent mortgage became one of thousands in Maryland sold by the federal government to a hedge fund or other private investor at a major discount.

By Natalie Sherman

Nov 16, 2016

• Business

Shuttered Cecil County wedding venue faces foreclosure auction

The Winery at Elk Manor, an elegant Carroll County wedding venue that closed abruptly in August following the owner's guilty plea to federal tax fraud, will be put up for foreclosure auction later this month.

By Colin Campbell

Oct 5, 2016

• Business

Baltimore County police warn of online rental scams

Rental scammers leave people with no money, no place to go.

• Business

Baltimore-area home sales fell in July; prices increased 3 percent

Home sales in the Baltimore region shrank for the first time in nearly two years last month, as prices inched up, inventory shrank and deals involving distressed properties, including foreclosures, plummeted.

By Natalie Sherman

Aug 10, 2016

• Foreclosures

Fannie Mae accused of neglecting foreclosures in minority neighborhoods

A collection of fair housing advocacy groups accused Fannie Mae on Wednesday of a pattern of maintaining and marketing its foreclosed houses in white areas – including in the Baltimore region – better than in minority areas.

By Carrie Wells

May 13, 2015

• Homes

Area housing market shows continuing recovery

The Baltimore area home market showed more signs of recovery last month, as sales hit their highest March mark since 2007 and new contracts rose for a tenth straight month, although the large number of foreclosure sales continued as a drag on prices, a real estate analyst reported Friday.

By Arthur Hirsch

Apr 10, 2015

• Maryland

Area housing market shows continuing recovery

The Baltimore area home market showed more signs of recovery last month, as sales hit their highest March mark since 2007 and new contracts rose for a tenth straight month, although the large number of foreclosure sales continued as a drag on prices, a real estate analyst reported Friday.

By Arthur Hirsch

Apr 10, 2015

• Opinion

Short sales need a tax break

Homeowners with mortgages bigger than the value of their property deserve a tax break

• Baltimore City

Belair-Edison: Fighting for a neighborhood for 'the middle'

Activists have fought to defend the working-class Northeast Baltimore community of Belair-Edison against the forces that have crushed other neighborhoods -- blockbusting and white flight, predatory lending and foreclosures, a loss of blue collar jobs, and crime. Unlike failing city neighborhoods, Belair-Edison has maintained high rates of homeownership, even as it transitioned from majority white to majority black in the 1990s. Experts say offering affordable housing to working- and middle-class

By Yvonne Wenger

Mar 29, 2015

• Baltimore City Paper

Wandering Eye: An increase in distressed home sales, reckoning with America's history of lynchings, and more

• Homes

Monthly home sales up in Baltimore region, though prices dip

The number of home sales and new listings was up last month from a year earlier, but home prices overall continued to fall, according to a monthly real estate analysis.

• Homes

Monthly home sales up in Baltimore region, though prices dip

The number of home sales and new listings was up last month from a year earlier, but home prices overall continued to fall, according to a monthly real estate analysis.

• Baltimore City

Longtime fans are sold on Alex Cooper Auctioneers

Alex Cooper Auctioneers in Towson is celebrating it 90th year and is planning a renovation of more than $1 million.

• Features

Short sales on the decline as economy improves

• Property

Home sales jump but distressed properties drag down Baltimore area prices

Home sales in the Baltimore area jumped in October for the third straight monthly increase over last year, as median prices continued to be dragged down by a sharp jump in distressed property sales, according to a real estate analyst's report.

• Editorial

Baltimore's tax sale folly

Baltimore's low threshold for triggering tax sales hurts homeowners, neighborhoods and the city budget.

• Opinion

City's tax sale foreclosure process must be reformed

Reforms urged to city's tax sale foreclosure process

• Business

Area home sales in Sept. hit post-crash high

Local home sales last month hit the highest September total since before the real estate market crashed, with gains in almost every jurisdiction in the Baltimore metropolitan area, although prices were essentially flat, according to a monthly report published Friday.

• Foreclosures

Institutions turning homes to rentals elsewhere steer clear in Baltimore

Large companies looking to turn a profit by renting single-family homes have been stirring activity in markets across the country for about two years. But not in the Baltimore region.

• Job Fairs and Hiring Events

Looking for work — again and again

For Jeanne Keen of Dundalk, life amid the long-term unemployed means job applications, financial struggles and the occasional small triumph.

• Baltimore City Paper

Just Business?

• Opinion

Tax sales tax city [Commentary]

• Harford

Veteran receives mortgage-free home in Harford

John Laursen, an Army veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his wife Casey have spent about than a year handling his recovery after being medically evacuated from Afghanistan, but they are able to begin moving forward, with the first steps being across the threshold of their new home in Harford County Wednesday.

• Baltimore City Paper

Primer on the Federal Bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

• Baltimore City Paper

At Auction

• Baltimore City Paper

Victim Mentality

• Baltimore City Paper

Judge Dismisses City's Suit Against Wells Fargo