MD Investor Brief, Issue #1 (week of Oct 20, 2026)
Free weekly distress data for Maryland flippers and landlords. Every number below comes from a public record, and the source is listed under it.
Headline stat of the week
8,530 Maryland homeowners got a Notice of Intent to Foreclose in September 2026, up 11.9% from September 2025 (7,623).
That's the first formal warning a lender must send before it can file a foreclosure. It's the earliest public pre-foreclosure signal in Maryland. September was also up 4.0% from August (8,203).
Source: MD Office of Financial Regulation, "Maryland Foreclosure Notice Data by County," Maryland Open Data Portal (opendata.maryland.gov/d/w3bc-8mnv), months of Sept 2025, Aug 2026 and Sept 2026, pulled 2026-10-20.
New distress signals by county: September 2026
| County | Notices of Intent (NOI) | Notices of Foreclosure (NOF) | Post-sale registrations (FPR) | NOI vs Sept 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prince George's | 2,058 | 174 | 25 | +9.5% |
| Baltimore County | 1,237 | 82 | 19 | +13.9% |
| Baltimore City | 1,225 | 217 | 139 | +14.0% |
| Anne Arundel | 652 | 96 | 7 | +12.6% |
| Montgomery | 636 | 58 | 13 | +8.5% |
| Charles | 508 | 63 | 7 | +14.9% |
| Frederick | 323 | 27 | 9 | +19.6% |
| Harford | 311 | 35 | 2 | +10.7% |
| Statewide (24 jurisdictions) | 8,530 | 888 | 260 | +11.9% |
Date range: Sept 1–30, 2026, compared with Sept 1–30, 2025. NOI = the lender's pre-filing warning. NOF = notice tied to a foreclosure case being filed. FPR = foreclosed-property registration filed after a foreclosure sale. Definitions are on OFR's Foreclosure Data Tracker (labor.maryland.gov/finance/consumers/frforeclosuredatatracker.shtml). All 24 jurisdictions are in this week's data file.
Source: MD Office of Financial Regulation via Maryland Open Data Portal, dataset w3bc-8mnv (last refreshed 2026-10-05). OFR notes the counts come from third-party filings, may contain duplicates, are not court records, and are not meant to serve as outreach targets.
Local signals with fresher dates
| Signal | Jurisdiction | Count | Date range |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Vacant Building Notices (still open) | Baltimore City | 327 | Sept 1 – Oct 19, 2026 |
| …of which issued in the last 7 days | Baltimore City | 57 | Oct 13 – Oct 19, 2026 |
| Foreclosed-property registrations | Prince George's | 256 | Aug 1 – Aug 28, 2026 (newest data available) |
Notes: Baltimore's file lists only notices that are still open. A notice issued in September and already cancelled won't appear in it. Prince George's has not posted records past Aug 28.
Sources: Baltimore City DHCD, "Vacant Building Notice – Open," Open Baltimore (DHCD_Open_Baltimore_Datasets/FeatureServer/1); Prince George's County Open Data, "County Foreclosures" (cni6-nr5g). All pulled 2026-10-20.
One notable pattern: Baltimore City drives the jump in completed foreclosures
Statewide post-sale foreclosure registrations (FPRs) were 652 in Jul–Sep 2026, up 38.7% from 470 in Jul–Sep 2025. Baltimore City alone accounted for 315 of the 652 (48.3%), up 59.9% from 197 a year earlier. Prince George's, the state's largest source of early warnings (24.1% of September's NOIs), went the other way: 73 FPRs, down from 92.
Monthly FPR counts swing a lot (Baltimore City went from 81 in August to 139 in September), so we compare quarters, not single months. The takeaway: more Baltimore City homes are getting through the full foreclosure process to a completed sale. That's where post-sale and REO inventory comes from.
New vacancy notices cluster too. Of the 327 open Baltimore Vacant Building Notices issued since Sept 1, the most are in Upton (25), Carrollton Ridge (18), Coldstream Homestead Montebello (17) and Sandtown-Winchester (15). 40 of the 327 are on City-owned (Mayor & City Council) property.
Sources: OFR via Maryland Open Data Portal (w3bc-8mnv), Jul–Sep 2025 and Jul–Sep 2026; Baltimore City DHCD via Open Baltimore (FeatureServer/1), notices dated Sept 1 – Oct 19, 2026.
Deal math of the week
Skipped this week. Building a real deal-math example takes a purchase price, a rehab cost and a resale price from actual public records for the same property. We won't fill the gaps with estimates. It returns once we can pull matched sale records (SDAT) with permit costs.
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Data is from public sources and is provided as-is. MD Investor Brief is not affiliated with or endorsed by the State of Maryland, Baltimore City or Prince George's County. Prince George's County makes no claims as to the completeness, accuracy or timeliness of its data; use at your own risk. Not investment advice.