Why so many foreclosures here & not in Maryland? (Woodbridge: transplants, for sale)

[TootsieWootsie]

I was looking on craigslist.com at the condos for sale, and was just blown away by all the foreclosures in Northern Virginia. Why not that many in Maryland? Can someone explain this one to me?

[VEIK]

....we have more condos in VA?
...more people who took out loans they could not pay?
...lower lending standards?

[TootsieWootsie]

Yes, I get that. You should take a look at craigslist.com for all the condos in foreclosure. It's really kinda shocking....and radically different from Maryland (so close yet so far away...).

[VEIK]

Why pay 400-500K for a 1-2 bedroom apartment, AKA condo, when you can get a townhouse for that price.

No wonder people are walking away from that stuff.

That, and the drop in prices on those things.

[pcity]

My guess would be because most of the new building boom was concentrated in VA. I don't know that the foreclosure rate is any different in MD.

[Skapov]

Maryland has not been as hard hit by the foreclosure mess because Montgomery County and Prince Georges County were not seen as "desireable enough" for people to pay crazy prices during the boom. WHY? Because the vast majority of transplants to DC Metro are Southerners from places like Tennessee and The Carolinas etc., and many would NEVER consider moving to Maryland (for socio-political reasons).

Since everyone was just DYING to have a home in Fairfax County, and willing to even be 2hrs away from their job and live in Mannassas and Woodbridge just to be on the Virginia side, they took on massive mortgages that they in no way could afford. Thus, the foreclosures are now hitting NoVa hard. Maryland did not have the big run-up in prices so much, and so Marylanders are more likely to be in homes where they can actually afford the mortgage payment.

[firefightermom]

Originally Posted by Skapov

Maryland has not been as hard hit by the foreclosure mess because Montgomery County and Prince Georges County were not seen as "desireable enough" for people to pay crazy prices during the boom. WHY? Because the vast majority of transplants to DC Metro are Southerners from places like Tennessee and The Carolinas etc., and many would NEVER consider moving to Maryland (for socio-political reasons).

Since everyone was just DYING to have a home in Fairfax County, and willing to even be 2hrs away from their job and live in Mannassas and Woodbridge just to be on the Virginia side, they took on massive mortgages that they in no way could afford. Thus, the foreclosures are now hitting NoVa hard. Maryland did not have the big run-up in prices so much, and so Marylanders are more likely to be in homes where they can actually afford the mortgage payment.

I lived in MoCo during the boom, and I saw plenty of people ready to pay crazy prices for property. My old neighborhood has a bunch of short sales and foreclosures now. My neighbor right next to me paid top dollar right at the end of the boom...he told me his mortgage was 3000/mo for a 20 year old TH. We sold a year and a half later for 50 thousand less than he paid, and prices have dropped another 40 thou in the neighborhood. I feel terribly for him and others in such a situation. We were lucky.

[VEIK]

You can't use Craigslist as measuring tool of how many houses are up in foreclosure.
Aint accurate.

[TrippingJay]

Originally Posted by Skapov

Maryland has not been as hard hit by the foreclosure mess because Montgomery County and Prince Georges County were not seen as "desireable enough" for people to pay crazy prices during the boom. WHY? Because the vast majority of transplants to DC Metro are Southerners from places like Tennessee and The Carolinas etc., and many would NEVER consider moving to Maryland (for socio-political reasons).

Since everyone was just DYING to have a home in Fairfax County, and willing to even be 2hrs away from their job and live in Mannassas and Woodbridge just to be on the Virginia side, they took on massive mortgages that they in no way could afford. Thus, the foreclosures are now hitting NoVa hard. Maryland did not have the big run-up in prices so much, and so Marylanders are more likely to be in homes where they can actually afford the mortgage payment.

I'm not sure where you drew that generalization from, but you couldn't be more wrong. Both, VA and MD were equally affected by the mortgage crisis and houses in both states were over-inflated and were selling like crazy.

I would not trust Craigslist as a reliable indicator of foreclosures, however; one reason for the less amount of foreclosures in MD might be due to the state government enacting foreclosure protections for a lot of homeowners who were in jeopardy of losing their homes. I'm not sure if VA has enacted similar legislature, so that could be a reason why you're seeing less foreclousures in MD.

[dgtlsunshine]

VA has more foreclosures because investors targeted VA in the past few years and not MD.