The Massachusetts housing recovery, especially the increase in home prices, clearly has spared many homeowners from foreclosure. Other factors, such as loan modifications, have played a role in the decline in foreclosures, but the decline in foreclosure activity has coincided with the improved Massachusetts real estate market.
There were 566 foreclosure deeds in August 2012, but that number declined 54 percent in August 2013. A total of 2,135 foreclosure deeds have been filed from January 2013 through August 2013, a 64 percent decrease compared to 5,979 deeds recorded during the same period in 2012.
Year-over-year foreclosure petitions also decreased significantly in August, dropping more than 76 percent to 436 from 1,833 in August 2012. Foreclosure petitions are the first step in the Massachusetts foreclosure process.
Foreclosure petitions have declined for 10 straight months, and have fallen below and remained under the 1,000 mark since November 2012. A total of 3,786 foreclosure petitions have been initiated through August 2013, a decline of nearly 70 percent from 12,456 foreclosure petitions filed during the same period in 2012.
The number of auction announcements tracked by The Warren Group also decreased in August. Auction announcements declined more than 38 percent to 691 statewide from 1,124 in August 2012. From January through August, 3,785 auctions have been announced, a 64 percent decline from 10,424 auctions during the same period in 2012.
According to CoreLogic, a real estate information company, there were 49,000 completed foreclosures in the United States in July 2013, down from 65,000 in July 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 25 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures decreased 8.6 percent from the 53,000 CoreLogic tracked in June.
CoreLogic also reported a decline in what is referred to as the foreclosure "shadow" inventory. As of July 2013, approximately 949,000 homes in the U.S. were in some stage of foreclosure compared to 1.4 million in July 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 32 percent. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 4.4 percent from June 2013 to July 2013. The shadow inventory as of July 2013 represented 2.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage compared to 3.4 percent in July 2012.