September Massachusetts Foreclosure Data Underreported

The Warren Group, a Boston-based real estate tracker and publisher of Banker & Tradesman, acknowledged that its September foreclosure report contained errors, the Boston Business Journal reported November 12, 2012.

Due to incomplete statewide data, the company reported fewer foreclosures were begun in September when, in fact, the number increased dramatically in Massachusetts. The September report failed to include all the data collected from the Land Court in Boston; hence, the number of foreclosures was underreported. Land Court located in Boston would include Suffolk County (Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop) foreclosure petitions. 

Foreclosure petitions, the first step in the home foreclosure process, actually jumped to 1,420 in September, a 22 percent increase from the same month in 2011.

Other data was not changed in the revised report, such as foreclosure deeds. The number of foreclosure deeds, the last step in the foreclosure process, reached 510 in September, a 32 percent drop from 754 during the same month in 2011.