BOSTON – Massachusetts foreclosure petitions rose 18 percent year over year in June, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.
The Warren Group said this marked the 16th consecutive month of increases in petition filings. Petitions mark the first step in the foreclosure process.
Lenders filed 886 petitions to foreclose in June compared with 488 filings in June 2014. A total of 5,316 petitions were filed in the first half of the year compared with 3,264 petitions filed during the same period last year, a 62.9 percent increase.
“The increases in foreclosure starts that we have been seeing steadily for months now are likely to continue through the second half of the year,” Tim Warren, CEO of The Warren Group, said in a statement. “Some lenders had let a lot of delinquent mortgages accumulate in the pipeline over the past few years. Now that the market has improved and buyers are eager for affordable homes to purchase, the backlog is getting pushed through the system.”
Statewide, foreclosure deeds reported a 34 percent increase in June with 411 deeds filed compared with 305 filings in June 2014. Deeds represent completed foreclosures.
Auction announcements fell in June by 4.2 percent to 504 from 526 a year earlier. However, year-to-date auctions increased 43 percent with 2,034 auction announcements recorded compared with 1,679 in the first six months of last year.
Bristol County only followed statewide patterns regarding foreclosure petitions, as they rose in June 87.7 percent to 107. The number of deeds dropped 48 percent to 53, and the number of auctions increased 16 percent to 71 in the county.
