Data on Montgomery County foreclosures now available
The Research & Technology Center of the Montgomery County Planning Department has created a new website to track foreclosure events in the County. The site includes links to digital maps plus key information about the foreclosure process—including recent changes in State law intended to give homeowners more time to cure a default.
The website is part of a broader initiative of the Research & Technology Center to serve as Montgomery County’s central resource for foreclosure-related data. Combining quarterly foreclosure data that it obtains from the Maryland Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD) with its own property-level data, the Research & Technology Center creates detailed data sets and digital maps to track foreclosures in Montgomery County. This data is provided to staff at the Department of Housing & Community Affairs (DHCA), the Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC) and other Montgomery County Government agencies.
Chris Leinberger, a leading land-use strategist and developer, will address that very issue tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Montgomery County Planning Board (8787 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910) as part of our “Excellence in Planning” speaker series with a presentation: “The Pent Up Demand for Walkable Urban Places; Ironically, in the Suburbs.”
Suburbia is becoming increasingly more complex with the pronounced out-migration of middle-class blacks from central cities, the development of ‘ethnoburbs’ because of large-scale immigration, and the emergence of new pockets of suburban distress. Just as the nation witnessed the widespread decline of cities, there is now a mounting crisis of decay in certain U.S. suburbs.
After several years of exceptionally fast-paced expansion, the Washington region’s growth has moderated, and housing market pressures are easing. Nonetheless, the regional economy remains strong, and average sales prices are high. For low- and moderate-income residents home prices and rents remain out of reach, and housing affordability pressures continue to place too many people at risk of homelessness. Finding a suitable and affordable place to live is especially difficult for people who need special design features or supportive services, such as people with physical and mental disabilities, elderly people who can no longer live independently, and individuals and families who have been homeless.
On April 17, Montgomery County Planning Department staff presented a 
On March 20, urban policy author and consultant, David Rusk spoke about affordable housing to an audience that included the Montgomery County Planning Board. Addressing a county that, in 1973, adopted one of the first—and arguably the most successful—inclusionary zoning programs in the country, he focused mainly on Montgomery County’s MPDU (moderately priced dwelling unit) program. He was persistently positive and supportive of the County’s efforts to address housing affordability thus far, but opened by saying that as one of the early pioneers of this program, mistakes were bound to be made. In commending the County on work to date, he also presented recommendations for improving the program by looking to other cities and counties that use mandatory inclusionary zoning. Out of the more than 400 cities and counties with mandatory inclusionary zoning, Rusk stated that of the 90,000 to 95,000 total inclusionary units, approximately 12,000 (roughly 1 out of 8) units were created in Montgomery County. Despite serving what he called “more extremely low income families” than any other inclusionary zoning program and having “the best urban government in America,” He highlighted room for improvement in the County.
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