Massachusetts Home Buyer Guide

It's true. Massachusetts foreclosure petitions have increased 19 straight months on a year-over-year basis.

Despite the string of petition increases over more than a year and a half, the Baystate isn't facing another foreclosure crisis. Lenders recorded 1,179 foreclosure petitions in September, a 60.6 percent increase compared to the 734 petitions recorded in September 2014, The Warren Group, a publisher of real estate news and data, reported November 5, 2015; however, the great majority of loans entering the foreclosure process were originated five or more years ago. Lenders slowed or in some cases stopped foreclosures for a time because of regulatory and legal uncertainty. Now that the dust has settled on the legal and regulatory fronts, lenders again are pursuing foreclosures. 

Petitions to foreclose recorded in Massachusetts Land Courts are the first notice in the public record of a lender’s intention to pursue foreclosure against a homeowner. Not every foreclosure petition recorded results in a completed foreclosure. 

Through September there have been 8,498 petitions recorded by lenders, a 56.8 percent increase compared to the 5,419 petitions filed through September 2014. There have been more foreclosure petitions recorded during the first nine months in 2015 than there were through the entire year in 2014. There were 7,588 petitions recorded in Massachusetts in 2014. 

Statewide there were 551 foreclosure deeds – the final step in the Massachusetts foreclosure process – recorded in September, a 9.3 percent increase compared with the 504 foreclosure deeds in September 2014. Through September there were 4,870 foreclosure deeds recorded in Massachusetts, a 28 percent increase from the 3,806 deeds recorded during the same nine-month period in 2014.

A auction notice is a legally required advertisement in a local newspaper that a property will be auctioned to the highest bidder at a specific time and location. There were 360 foreclosure auction notices in September, a 22.5 percent increase over the 294 notices in September 2014. There were 3,159 auction announcements through September, a 24.5 percent increase compared to the 2,538 notices during the same time frame last year.