BOSTON – Foreclosure petitions and auction announcements in Massachusetts surged last month, according to the latest figures from The Warren Group. Compared with July 2006, petitions rose 66.5 percent while announcements more than doubled, in their 18th straight month of year-over-year increases.
“July held more of the same for Massachusetts homeowners,” said Timothy Warren, CEO of The Warren Group. “More people are having trouble paying their mortgages, likely because rates on many are resetting, and more of those people who get into trouble are having a hard time getting out. They are finding it more difficult to refinance or to sell, so more foreclosures are making it to the auction process.”
Mass. Land Court received 2,185 filings of petitions to foreclose in July, up from 1,312 filed in the same month last year. During the first seven months of the year, the court received 15,130 such filings, a 66.5-percent increase from the year-ago period’s 9,089.
Auction announcements across the Bay State rose to 1,128, a 130.2-percent increase from the 490 announcements posted in July 2006. In the first seven months of the year, 8,711 announcements were made, an increase of 165 percent from the year-ago 3,287.
Petitions are the first step in the foreclosure process, the group noted. Some homeowners sell their homes or refinance after the petition is filed – or even after the auction is announced – so neither measure gives the actual number of completed foreclosures.
The Warren Group Inc. is a provider of New England real estate data and the publisher of Banker & Tradesman and other journals. Additional information is available at www.thewarrengroup.com.
