Massachusetts Home Buyer Guide

The number of completed foreclosures in Massachusetts through February 2013 are down about two thirds compared to 2012, The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, reported April 2, 2013. 

In February, 240 foreclosure deeds – the final step of the foreclosure process – were filed in Massachusetts, down almost 69 percent from 767 foreclosure deeds filed in February 2012. The recording of a foreclosure deed represents a completed foreclosure. Through February, foreclosure deeds have plunged 66 percent. A total of 532 foreclosure deeds were filed in January and February compared to 1,566 during the same two months in 2012.

It appears that Massachusetts foreclosure activity may not even be newsworthy for much longer. 

In January, there were 292 foreclosure deeds filed in Massachusetts, a 63 percent decrease from 799 deeds recorded in January 2012, The Warren Group reported March 5, 2013. Foreclosure deeds represent completed foreclosures.

The number of Massachusetts foreclosure petitions declined almost 30 percent in January 2013, declining to 940 from 1,333 in January 2012. Foreclosure petitions, which mark the first step in the foreclosure process in the Bay State, have fallen for three consecutive months. Petitions rose nine out of twelve months in 2012. Not all foreclosure petitions result in a completed foreclosure. 

A total of 1,617 single-family home sales were bank-owned properties, representing 3.4 percent of all single-family sales in 2012. The number of foreclosed homes sold decreased from 2011, when bank-owned properties accounted for 3.8 percent of all single-family home sales in Massachusetts, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.  

The number of foreclosure deeds, the last step in the foreclosure process in Massachusetts, declined again in November, marking the sixth straight month of year-over-year declines in completed foreclosures, The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, reported January 2, 2013.

The number of Massachusetts homeowners who faced foreclosure increased 22 percent in October, the highest number of foreclosure petitions filed since October 2009, the Boston Business Journal reported December 3, 2012.

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.