I spent most of the day in Maryland with the Donna Edwards campaign, at a housing fair for first time home buyers in Montgomery County and then at a picnic in Prince George's. The sense I'm getting is that the subprime and housing price pop is becoming a really big issue in both areas, both because it's a problem nationwide and because predatory lenders disproportionately target minority communities.
This is something which became apparent at the ACORN forum I went to awhile back. It seemed as if practically every questioner asserted that they had been victims of predatory lending. While abandoned McMansions in predominantly white suburbs may be getting the news now, there were a lot of victims of bad lending practices in poor and minority communities. It's a huge issue, and whatever the best way to deal with it politicians aren't doing it.
They can pass bills very quickly when they want to. Remember how fast they gave George Bush the power to spy on you without a warrant!