ZIP 21042 Foreclosure, Tax-Lien & Distress Report

In Howard County, Maryland, ZIP 21042 scores 27 of 100 for composite distress, a low level on DLRadar's public-record index. It additionally carries heavy environmental risk: climate & FEMA risk (78/100), flood (NFIP) exposure (68/100). Structurally it carries 62/100, against 2/100 of stress already in motion. Its standout signals are construction/permit lag (100/100), structural risk (62/100), institutional ownership (16/100). By contrast, institutional ownership (16/100) and mortgage stress (6/100) register low.

Prices here sit in a peak phase: values rose 2.2% over the trailing year, and 16% higher over three years, at 21/100 phase confidence. Topping markets hide individual distress behind strong averages.

At $190,504, median income runs above typical U.S. levels. Educational attainment sits at 75% bachelor's-or-above. 2.7% of residents fall below the poverty threshold. Vacancy runs 2.0%. There are about 15,368 housing units across 21042. The typical home is worth about $706,400 (3.5× income, relatively affordable). DLRadar's demographic-stress index for the area reads 23/100. Owners hold 85% of homes, renters 15%. Rent burden reaches 44% of tenant households. About 43,021 people live here, median age 45.

Net-net, 21042 is middle-of-the-pack, where the deals are specific addresses rather than the whole ZIP. There is no property file for 21042 at the moment; the composite and its components are still built from verifiable public records.

No ZIP is too small to score: 21042 passes through the same foreclosure, tax, mortgage and bank-stress model as any major-metro ZIP, so its 27/100 composite is a like-for-like number rather than an isolated estimate. Nothing here is interpolated — where a source is thin for 21042, DLRadar leaves it blank rather than guessing, and re-scores as new records post.

The 27/100 figure for 21042 is a composite, not one metric: it rolls up foreclosure and pre-foreclosure activity, mortgage stress, tax delinquency and liens, local lender headwind, and structural risk into a single reading, which is why a ZIP can look calm on price yet score high on distress. For a buyer, 21042 is one row in a larger workflow: confirm the score, pull the distressed parcels behind it, then move from signal to funded, closed acquisition through DLRadar.