mortgages

Non-traditional housing should soon provide some relief to Baltimore's homeless population.

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

The nation’s second most powerful housing official toured Baltimore this week and left with a good impression of a city that her boss, U.S. Housing Secretary Ben Carson, once called home and where her husband’s employer does business.

By Doug Donovan

Aug 24, 2018

It is estimated that about 30 percent of Carroll County households pay more than 30 percent of their income toward housing, a figure Habitat for Humanity of Carroll County Executive Director Bryan Lyburn attributes to the United Way’s ALICE Report.

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.

When I read a recent story about the low level of home ownership by African-Americans, I winced. We’re white, middle-class homeowners, with good credit scores and decent savings. If it was this hard us to get a mortgage, how difficult is it for first-time minority applicants to buy a house?

A former Highlandtown businessman released three days earlier from federal prison was identified as the man fatally shot by masked men in a neighborhood barbershop Monday evening.

House Republican tax bill is a $1.5 trillion gift to the rich, not average Americans.

A reader has a sadly familiar story: Man and woman marry, decide they are not right for each other, get divorced. If there were no other complicating factors,

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

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

Carson is fundamentally wrong if he thinks private mortgage insurers can duplicate FHA's success

The jolt to interest rates that followed Trump's win signaled the incoming president's market-moving power. But analysts said that for residential real estate — a sector that fuels more than 15 percent of the country's economy — it's not clear in what direction the market might be moving.

By Natalie Sherman

Nov 26, 2016

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

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

A buyer needs an annual salary of about $56,000 to afford a typical home in the Baltimore area, according to the most recent analysis by a company that tracks mortgage and loan information.

By Natalie Sherman

Nov 15, 2016

FirstRex helps homebuyers by matching down payments in exchange for a stake in the property. With families facing rising home prices, sluggish wage growth and tighter credit requirements, FirstRex executives say their program offers a way to bridge the gap.

By Natalie Sherman

Oct 15, 2016

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

Home sales in the Baltimore area had their best January in eight years, and all signs point to a strong spring market, real estate analysts said. Numbers released by the RealEstate Business Intelligence and the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors — reflecting slightly different spans of time — show January sales up by 18.4 and nearly 17 percent respectively compared with a year before. The sales figure was the best since 2007, RBI reported.

By Arthur Hirsch

Feb 10, 2015

A former Westminster resident was indicted in federal court recently for allegedly committing mail fraud by convincing victims to give him money to invest on their behalf with the promise of high returns.

Catherine Byrne Doehler, who went from a switchboard operator of a mortgage firm to being the first woman director of the Baltimore branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, has died.

By Jacques Kelly

Jan 23, 2015

The parent company of Ellicott City-based Howard Bank reported strong growth and a more than five-fold increase in its earnings in 2014, driven largely by its acquisition of a failed Rising Sun bank.

By Carrie Wells

Jan 21, 2015

Only Carroll town with population more than 5,000

Only Carroll town with population more than 5,000

Susan Reimer on whether to rent or buy a home

By Susan Reimer

Dec 21, 2014

A Baltimore advocacy organization is offering $50,000 in housing assistance by lottery as part of an information fair for would-be homebuyers in the Waverly area on Saturday.

Mary M. "Margie" Adams, who worked for a mortgage origination company and was an avid physical fitness enthusiast, died Friday at her Sparks home of a massive heart attack. She was 49.

Corridor Mortgage Group, a locally owned and operated company, has raised $90,000 over the last four years for the Howard and Carroll County chapters of Special Olympics through its Corridor Classic golf tournament.

The median home price in the Baltimore metro area fell for the second month in a row in August, as the number of the homes on the market continued to increase, according to a monthly report published Wednesday.

Oh my, Jersey! This episode was so drama-filled I¿m going to get straight into it.

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.

A lawsuit that accuses Creig Northrop Team, Long & Foster and several mortgage firms — including Long & Foster's Prosperity Mortgage Co. — of perpetrating mortgage fraud to ease home buying and selling could go before a jury, after the Maryland Court of Special Appeals reversed a decision that found the statute of limitations had expired.

Maryland will receive $33 million from a nearly $1 billion joint state-federal settlement reached with SunTrust Mortgage Inc. over problems with its mortgage servicing and foreclosure procedures, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said Tuesday.