Posted on January - 19 - 2011
Mass. foreclosures rose 32% in 2010 compared to 2009, Warren Group says
BOSTON – Massachusetts foreclosures last year rose by 32 percent compared with 2009, The Warren Group said Wednesday.
The real estate tracking firm said lenders completed 12,233 foreclosures last year, up from 9,269 the year before.
In Bristol County, Mass., foreclosures totaled 1,280 in 2010, marking a 45 percent increase from the 884 foreclosures completed the year before.
Warren Group CEO Timothy M. Warren Jr. attributed the increases to Bay State lenders spending 2010 working through a backlog of foreclosures started in previous years. The foreclosure process, he said, can often take more than a year and lenders have faced pressure from regulators to attempt to modify loans before foreclosing.
“As the paperwork got completed and title searchers were finished, lenders finally got their foreclosure deeds on record,” Warren said.
Even with the increase, the number of foreclosures last year was below the record-high 12,430 completed in 2008.
Looking ahead to this year, Warren said he remained cautious. While lenders started fewer foreclosures last year, Warren attributed the 14 percent drop to a slowdown in the foreclosure process rather than an improving situation. Some lenders, Warren noted, paused starting foreclosures during the fourth quarter while they addressed concerns about foreclosure-related paperwork.
Warren also expressed concern that stubbornly high unemployment and mortgage delinquency rates would lead to more foreclosures.
Across the state, lenders last year filed 23,933 petitions – the first step in the process – compared with 27,928 a year earlier. In Bristol County, they filed 2,328 petitions, down from 2,490 a year earlier.
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