Maryland leads nation in foreclosures

Unintended consequences: “It was the second consecutive month that Maryland led the nation in [the rate of] foreclosure filings, RealtyTrac said.” While filings nationwide were down 7 percent from a year earlier, those in Maryland were up 13 percent. [Baltimore Business Journal] We’ve noted before that although liberal legislators in Annapolis imagined they were doing poorer homeowners a favor by making the state’s foreclosure process so slow, the results have included unusual delays in bounce-back from housing recessions and persistent neighborhood blight. That’s to say nothing of the entrenchment of non-paying occupants in luxury homes for years at a stretch. To quote another commentator’s words in our March item:

“Living rent-free in a $600,000 house is a ‘plight’ only in the sense that at some point you may have to stop.” [Arnold Kling on the Washington Post’s naive Prince George’s County foreclosure series; coverage of Maryland’s unusually lender-hostile foreclosure law at Overlawyered here, here, here, here, here, and here]

In miniature, March 21

• “Maryland legislature mulls new SWAT transparency bill” [Radley Balko, earlier here, here, and here] More: Jason Boisvert;
• With conservative support, legislature moving to give Child Protective Services more power to keep kids away from parents. What could go wrong? [Frederick News-Post, more about laws named after victims]
• State should give scandal-plagued Baltimore jail back to city [Van Smith, earlier]
• “Living rent-free in a $600,000 house is a ‘plight’ only in the sense that at some point you may have to stop.” [Arnold Kling on the Washington Post’s naive Prince George’s County foreclosure series; coverage of Maryland’s unusually lender-hostile foreclosure law at Overlawyered here, here, here, here, here, and here]
• Veteran cop once feared concealed carry but testifies how “they schooled me” [The Blaze]
• Sigh: “Maryland Institutes Affirmative Action for Pot Growers” [Roger Clegg]