mortgage assistance

State housing officials were preparing to work late into the night Friday as the deadline loomed to get federal mortgage help to struggling Maryland homeowners.

State housing officials are working feverishly to beat a heck of a deadline: Finish processing enough applications by the end of Friday to make nearly $57 million in emergency loans to homeowners facing foreclosure, or give back to Uncle Sam whatever they can't spend in time.

Help still is available for Marylanders at risk of losing their home because they lost a job, their pay was cut or earnings reduced because of an illness.

The number of Maryland homeowners who are behind on their mortgages still is falling, but the pace of that decline has slowed as rising unemployment puts more pressure on borrowers, numbers released Monday show.

The online portal HOPE LoanPort and GMAC Mortgage have teamed up on a program to allow Maryland homeowners and participating mortgage servicers to exchange documents in foreclosure mediation cases electronically.

Fewer Maryland homeowners were behind on mortgage payments or in foreclosure in the first quarter compared to the year-ago period, reflecting a real estate market on the mend, statistics released Thursday show.