Foreclosures continue; prices fall

Prince George’s County had the state’s highest foreclosure rate last month, with one home out of every 237 foreclosed — a total of 1,324 foreclosures. It was an increase of 25 percent from January and 1,476 percent from February 2007.

Foreclosures rose in Montgomery County, with 540 foreclosures in February, up 7 percent from January and 395 percent from a year ago.

Foreclosures in Frederick County fell last month to 152 from 202 in January, but the numbers are far above those of a year ago. In January 2007, the county saw 34 foreclosures, followed by 18 the next month.

Stephen Mackintosh, co-owner of Mackintosh Realtors in Frederick, said a healthy housing market in Frederick County has roughly 1,150 listings in a month. Earlier this month, the county had 2,070 active listings. Inventory peaked in September with 2,500 listings.

Mackintosh anticipates a growing inventory unless foreclosure rates dip significantly, as more prospective sellers tend to list in the spring.

The nationwide foreclosure rate decreased by about 4 percent in February from January, but was still nearly 60 percent higher than in February 2007.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, 2.5 percent of the more than 1 million loans serviced in Maryland were seriously delinquent, or more than 90 days past due, according to the survey. That’s slightly lower than the nationwide delinquency rate last quarter of 5.8 percent.

Latest housing sales iinformtion from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems shows, in Montgomery County, total units sold down almost 43 percent from February 2007 to February 2008, while average days on market were up 26 percent for the same period, from 96 days to 121. The data were for other state jurisdictions, with Frederick County, Prince George's County and Baltimore City, for example, showing an even higher percentage for the increase in average days on market for February 2008 compared with February 2007.