Darci Marchese, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – Last week, we learned about the mortgage and foreclosure settlement worth over $25 billion dollars.
So what’s next with foreclosures?
The flood gates may be open. The CEO of Realty Trac, Brandon Moore says “The frozen-up foreclosure process is beginning to thaw.”
He says we will watch foreclosures increase throughout the country, now that the settlement eliminates the cloud of uncertainty around the foreclosure process.
This will especially be true in Maryland.
Realty Trac says default notices increased in January by 100 percent from a year ago. Take the fact that it takes up to two years to process foreclosures in Maryland and there can be an unstable market for quite some time there.
By comparison, the entire foreclosure process takes under four months in Virginia.
In Virginia, Fairfax County continues to have the greatest number of foreclosures. In January, the county saw 343 compared with 299 in Prince William County.
The greatest number of foreclosures in Maryland continues to occur in Prince George’s County. They saw 352 foreclosures followed by Baltimore City with 181 and Montgomery County with 148.
In D.C. there were 174 foreclosures in January.
According to Realty Trac, the average price of a foreclosed home was $180,316 in January. That compares with $265,682 in Virginia. The national average is $167,659.
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