By Leonard Sparks

Special to The Sentinel

A seminar on home buying drew a handful of Prince George's County residents undaunted by the drumbeat of bad news about the foreclosure crisis and the ever-tightening market for home loans.

The workshop at Good Luck Community Center in Lanham on Saturday was a primer on the importance of repairing credit before seeking a loan and using an licensed real estate agent who can aid in negotiating with home sellers and understanding complicated sales contracts.

Sponsored by Prince George's nonprofit Housing Options & Planning Enterprises Inc., the workshop also emphasized caution in dealing with mortgage brokers pushing too-good-to-believe loans, such as the adjustable-rate subprime loans that are being blamed for the rash of foreclosures.

"It's best that you always have an agent with you," said LaShawn S. Woodward, a licensed real estate agent and housing counselor who led the workshop. "That's where you see a lot of foreclosures going on. Because they just talked to lenders that were just predatory lenders."

The seminar came two days after a mortgage industry trade group revealed figures showing that mortgage delinquencies for the first three months of this year were at a record high.

More than 6 percent of all outstanding loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties were at least 30 days past due at the end of the first quarter of 2008, according to seasonally adjusted figures released on June 5 by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Loans in foreclosures accounted for 2.47 percent of all loans for the first quarter. The rates for delinquencies and foreclosures are the highest since MBA began tracking them in 1979, the group said.

In Maryland, Prince George's County leads in foreclosure activity, according to a quarterly report by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. Notices of mortgage default, foreclosure sales and lender purchases of foreclosed properties totaled more than 3,300 from January to March.

That total represents 29 percent of foreclosure activity statewide, the report said, and is about 22 percent higher than the previous quarter and 636 percent higher than a year ago.

As banks toughen their lending criteria, prospective buyers need to be more concerned about blemishes on their credit records, Woodward said. A good credit rating enhances borrowers' abilities to get loans and also improves the likelihood that they will get the best interest rate, she said.

"Pretty much in this market, things have changed," she said. "In this market, it's hard to get a loan. It's hard to get financing."

Woodward also emphasized the importance of pre-purchase inspections, insurance and being represented by a licensed real estate agent. Several times she reminded attendees that the seller, not the buyer, pays agents' fees.

"It's best that you always have an agent with you," she said. "That's where you see a lot of foreclosures going on. Because they just talked to lenders that were just predatory lenders."

Sharon Wilson, an operating room technician at Doctor's Community Hospital, said the session was "very informative."

The former New Orleans resident, who resettled in Maryland following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, currently shares a two-bedroom apartment with her 17-year-old son.

Wilson, 46, said the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been reducing by $50 each month her apartment subsidy. This month, she paid $200 for an apartment whose market rate is $1,000.

For her, purchasing a home is "an investment." Woodward agrees.

"That's the best thing you can do," Woodward said. "That's your legacy. That's what you have for your kids. That's what you have for your grandkids."

Photo by Leonard Sparks