Explainer: How NOIs work

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

In Maryland, a Notice of Intent to Foreclose is the first step in the formal foreclosure process.

As soon as 45 days after a borrower misses a mortgage payment, the lender can send a notice to a borrower, initiating the foreclosure process.

Often, though, borrowers can be in default for months, or years, before the notice of intent to foreclose is filed.

The next step is the filing of a foreclosure action in the circuit court, at least 45 days after the original notice is sent. But as with the initial notice, the timeline is up to the lender, which can choose to file as soon as the 45-day clock runs out, or any time after that. Once the foreclosure action is filed, the homeowner has 25 days to request mediation.

What Went Wrong

Donald Barlett and James Steele are revisiting America: What Went Wrong, their landmark 1991 newspaper series, in a new project with the Investigative Reporting Workshop. Over the next year, the project team will examine how four decades of public policy has shaped America's ongoing economic crisis.

Issues

Back Story

The authors talk about What Went Wrong

Donald Barlett and James Steele talk about the project, and why they decided to revisit a book they wrote two decades ago, in a series of video clips produced by the Workshop.

Nation's Story

Who pays the taxes?

We feature charts, maps, photos and other visualizations that reflect the state of the economy as part of our What Went Wrong project. This column chart shows the growing disparity between what individuals and corporations pay in taxes. In the 1950s, the difference was 22 percent. Recent figures show the difference is 62 percent.

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Older workers face challenges in Silicon Valley

An advanced degree and experience in the tech sector should be a ticket to a job in today's economy. But older workers in the heart of the new economy, Silicon Valley, are finding their resume is not the issue. Aaron Glantz reports in The Bay Citizen.

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Read an Excerpt

The Betrayal of the American Dream on Google Books

Check out the first chapter of Barlett and Steele's 2012 book here.