Foreclosure petitions, auctions, deeds rise in Massachusetts in 2015

BOSTON – Foreclosure petition filings in Massachusetts increased 118.2 percent, to 1,224 in December from 561 in December 2014, The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, said Tuesday.
The Warren Group said December marked the 22nd consecutive month of double-digit year-over-year increases. However, the 1,224 petitions still are far below the numbers the Bay State experienced during the foreclosure crisis, as 2,724 foreclosure petitions were filed in December 2007.

In 2015, there were 11,767 petitions filed statewide, a 55.1 percent increase compared with 7,588 filed in 2014. Bristol County also mirrored statewide trends regarding petition filings, reporting a 68.1 percent increase, to 195 in 2015 from 116 the year before.
Petitions are the first entry in the public record in the foreclosure process, in which lenders file a notice of intention to foreclose with the Land Court.

“Lenders are pushing more foreclosures through the system now that they’re both comfortable with the state’s regulations and feel they may be able to resell these properties at a good price,” Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, said in a statement. “We are not yet concerned that we’re approaching another crisis; the indications are many of these are old delinquencies that the banks delayed acting on, not a new glut of bad loans.”

There were 563 auction notices filed in December, an 11.7 percent increase from 504 filed in December 2014. There were 6,891 foreclosure auction notices in 2015, a 25.2 percent increase from 5,504 in 2014. Bristol County also saw a 27.6 percent increase in auctions in 2015, to 970 from 760 in 2014.

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In addition, there were 469 foreclosure deeds filed in December 2015, a 46.1 percent increase from 321 deeds during the year-ago period. There were 4,399 deeds filed in 2015, a 21.4 percent increase from the 3,623 in 2014. Bristol County reported a nearly 7 percent increase in deeds filed, to 494 last year from 462 in 2014.
These deeds represent completed foreclosures, The Warren Group said.

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