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Suffering in Silence Over Foreclosure
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In Baltimore, city officials filed suit in January against Wells Fargo Bank, claiming that the lender sold higher-interest subprime loans to black homeowners more frequently than to white borrowers. Steven A. Silverman, consumer protection chief for the Maryland attorney general's office, said the state is reviewing Baltimore's claims.
Perez, who was chairman of a state task force on foreclosures, said he thinks some borrowers in Prince George's were steered toward adjustable-rate loans when they qualified for better deals.
Prince George's residents, on average, have credit scores that are higher than the state average, according to CreditXpert, a credit-management software company in Towson.
About 58 percent of county residents who refinanced homes in 2006 received subprime loans, compared with 34 percent of homeowners statewide, according to statistics provided by Maryland Legal Aid.
The county's foreclosure rate reached 1.5 percent last year, twice as high as any other jurisdiction in Maryland, RealtyTrac data showed. In the first nine months of last year, the county recorded 3,310 foreclosures filings.
Moving Out and Up
This is not the scenario Bill Chesley envisioned for Perrywood when he bought the old Tuck Farm in 1980 with plans to transform the 540-acre expanse of land into an upscale subdivision.
In the early 1990s, bulldozers started moving ground, and soon, houses were popping up. The development near Route 202 quickly became a sought-after address, particularly among upper-middle class African Americans from elsewhere in the county and the District looking for larger homes and more convenient amenities.
At the time, the county was seeking to move its housing stock beyond the garden apartments of the 1960s and the low-cost housing of the 1970s and 1980s. The new wave of development brought about eye-popping neighborhoods such as Lake Arbor, Woodmore and Perrywood, all planned communities with big houses and big price tags.
For many who moved in, the upscale developments were proof that they had made it.
Carmen Strother moved to Perrywood four years ago from Fairmount Heights, where she said crime was so bad she would not let her children play outside. "The neighborhood is quiet," she said, noting that the Perrywood Community Association pays for security patrols. "Here, everybody has big yards."
Some have big mortgages, too. Del. Aisha N. Braveboy (D-Prince George's), who represents Perrywood, said she understands how homeowners can get into mortgage trouble. "These are people who have great incomes, but their houses are priced at a point where they can't afford them," she said.
One homeowner said she started receiving foreclosure notices shortly after her husband was killed. Now, she is trying to unload her five-bedroom house in a short sale, in which a lender agrees to take less than a house is worth to avoid the costs of foreclosure.
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