Foreclosure petitions jump nearly 46% in February in Mass.

BRISTOL COUNTY MIRRORED statewide patterns, showing increases in foreclosure petition filings, auction notices and foreclosure deeds year over year, and year to date, in February. / COURTESY THE WARREN GROUP
BRISTOL COUNTY MIRRORED statewide patterns, showing increases in foreclosure petition filings, auction notices and foreclosure deeds year over year, and year to date, in February. / COURTESY THE WARREN GROUP

BOSTON – Foreclosure petitions climbed 45.6 percent year over year in February in Massachusetts, marking the 24th consecutive month of increases, The Warren Group said Tuesday.
This is the highest number of petitions reported in February since 2012, according to The Warren Group.
Lenders filed 1,264 petitions to foreclose in February this year, compared with 868 filed last year at the same time. For the first two months of the year, there have been 2,188 petitions filed, a 47.2 percent increase from 1,486 filed during the same time in 2015. Petitions are the first step in the foreclosure process, when lenders file notice of their intention to foreclose in Land Court.
“While there’s no doubt some new delinquencies are occurring, the majority of what we’re seeing as ‘new’ foreclosures are loans that have been delinquent for quite some time,” Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, said in a statement. “Lenders continue to work through what remains of their backlog from several years ago, when the entire industry ground to a halt to await the outcome of legislative and regulatory changes and updates.”
There were 644 auction notices filed in February, an 8.8 percent jump from 592 in February 2015. There have been 1,389 auctions in Massachusetts so far this year, a 19.2 percent increase from the same period in 2015 when there were 1,167.
In addition, there were 519 foreclosure deeds filed in February, a nearly 67 percent increase from the 311 deeds filed in February 2015. There have been 867 deeds recorded in Massachusetts in 2016, a 52.6 percent increase from 568 filed through February 2015. These deeds represent completed foreclosures.
Bristol County reflected statewide trends, posting a 50 percent hike in the number of petitions, to 138 from 92, a 15 percent increase in auctions, to 83 from 72, and 38 percent rise in the number of deeds, to 55 from 40.

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