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Massachusetts Foreclosure Pace May be Slowing

In Massachusetts, the number of foreclosures that lenders are seeking has dropped to its lowest rate in more than a year, according to The Boston Globe. This may be an indication that fewer people will lose their homes this year. Bankruptcy rates may see some decline because so many file to stop foreclosure.

While these numbers may indicate positive movement forward, there was a rise in the number of foreclosure deeds, which is one of the final steps in the foreclosure process. Not since 2006 have the number of foreclosure deeds been as high as they are now.

Chief executive of the Warren Group, Timothy Warren, offered the position that the decrease in petitions for foreclosures could have to do with the Obama administration’s drive to get lenders to modify loans for those in trouble financially.

There were almost 1,874 petitions for foreclosure in January of 2010, as compared with 2,060 in December of 2009, a 9 percent decrease. Monthly petitions have fallen below 2,000 in Massachusetts only a few times in the last year.

Conversely, in January of this year, more than a thousand foreclosure deeds were registered in the state. In the same period last year there were only 978 foreclosure deeds filed.

The increase in foreclosure deeds could, according to Warren, be the result of a Massachusetts Land Court decision that slowed down the foreclosure process. This slowing down of the process could, Warren said, be a factor that kept the 2009 figures down artificially.

Warren was hopeful that if the loan modifications were in fact a key to the drop in the foreclosure numbers, “that would certainly be a hopeful sign and some kind of indication that that worst of the foreclosure problems are over.” He was sure to note that the foreclosure numbers right now are still at historic highs.

Around 28,000 homeowners received foreclosure petitions last year. This represents a 28.1 percent increase over the 2008 numbers. The foreclosure rises had begun to creep into more traditionally affluent communities in Massachusetts. The foreclosure filings by homeowners in places like Concord, Winchester and Weston are up, which may indicate that the economic recession is having a negative impact on every level of the economic ladder.

The Boston Globe spoke to Barry Bluestone, who is the dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. Bluestone said that the pressures of the foreclosure crisis many times affect people who have been unemployed for months and who may have purchased a home at a time when the housing market was at its highest.

“They have seen the value of their home decline and they have been laid off a long time,’’ Bluestone told the Globe. “We fear we may see another spike in petitions if unemployment continues to be very high, which it looks like it may.’’

Home auction announcements were also up in Massachusetts. Warren, though, said that auctions are a fluctuating entity that can rise and fall with little warning. He did admit, though, that the rise to 3,000 was “quite an increase.”