Foreclosure deeds filed for Massachusetts properties more than doubled in January compared to the same month in 2007.
There were 799 foreclosure sales recorded at registries of deeds in the Bay State last month, according to new data from The Warren Group, Banker & Tradesman’s parent company. A foreclosure deed is the final step in the foreclosure process and conveys ownership of properties to a lender or, on occasion, a new borrower. In January 2007, 350 foreclosure deeds were recorded.
Suffolk County, which includes the city of Boston, had the highest percentage and numeric increase in foreclosures. Last month 123 foreclosure deeds were recorded in Suffolk compared with 34 in January 2007. The additional 89 represent an increase of 262 percent.
Lucy Warsh, a spokeswoman for Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development, said the statistics are “alarming.” But in Boston, she said, they could have been worse.
Just last year, according to Warsh, the Boston Home Center prevented more than 200 foreclosures through counseling services to Boston homeowners offered by city employees and nonprofit agencies.
“We counted 703 foreclosures for the city last year, and if [the Boston Home Center assistance] hadn’t been available, there would have been 30 percent more,” Warsh said.
An estimated 15 to 20 city employees work full time on anti-foreclosure and foreclosure-prevention initiatives, she said. The programs include the “Don’t Borrow Trouble” ad campaign, the First Choice Lenders partnerships with local banks willing to help borrowers refinance out of bad loans, homebuyer assistance and foreclosure prevention seminars, and intervening when a homeowner actually faces foreclosure.
Middlesex County – the state’s most populous region – had the next-highest increase in foreclosure deeds recorded. The county, which includes several wealthy suburbs in Boston’s MetroWest region, saw 110 foreclosure deeds recorded in January compared to the same month in 2007, when 46 foreclosures were recorded, representing a 139 percent increase.
Only Franklin and Nantucket counties saw no increase in the number of foreclosure deeds recorded in January 2008 compared with the same month in the prior year. Just four foreclosure deeds were recorded in January in both years in Franklin County, a northwestern Massachusetts county that includes Greenfield. No foreclosures were recorded during those months in Nantucket County.
The number of foreclosure deeds has been trending up over the past year. In 2007, 7,653 foreclosure deeds were recorded in Massachusetts, more than double the 3,086 foreclosures logged at registries of deeds in 2006, according to The Warren Group.
