Massachusetts Home Buyer Guide

We announced in this blog in July 2013 (Massachusetts Foreclosure Crisis Over, Foreclosure Petitions Down 86%) and again in April 2014 (Safe to Say the Massachusetts Foreclosure Crisis is Over?) that the foreclosure crisis in Massachusets was over, dead, done with, kaput, and the crisis is definitely history; however, something surprising, if not completely unexpected, has happened in recent months.

Foreclosure petitions – the first step in the Massachusetts foreclosure process – have risen on a month-over-month basis for a couple months. By no means are we back in foreclosure crisis mode, not even close, but as lenders get the last of the foreclosures off their books there may be an opportunities for some home buyers and investors. 

Foreclosure petitions rose in June compared to June 2013, but remained well below the levels posted during the foreclosure crisis, according to the latest foreclosure report from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. A total of 488 petitions were recorded in June compared with 245 foreclosure starts in June 2013. The number of petitions in June increased 99.1 percent, but June's numbers were 14.8 percent less than May of this year and 34.1 percent less than April. In June 2009, when the Massachusetts real estate market was really hurting, there were 2,835 foreclosure petitions filed. 

From January through June of 2014, 3,264 petitions to foreclose were filed in Massachusetts, an increase of 12.8 percent from 2,893 during the same period in 2013.

Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group believes regulatory uncertainy resulted in lenders slowing down foreclosures last year, leading to artificially low foreclosure numbers.

The number of foreclosure deeds, which represent completed foreclosures, decreased more than 18 percent to 268 in June, down from 329 foreclosure deeds in June 2013. A total of 1,375 foreclosure deeds have been recorded in the first six months of the year, a 12.8 percent decline from the 1,578 deeds filed during the same period in 2013. 

Second quarter foreclosure activity also increased statewide. In the second quarter this year, foreclosure starts rose 119 percent to 1,801 from 820 during the second quarter last year. Completed foreclosures in the second quarter decreased across the Bay State. Deeds dropped 27 percent to 596 from 815 during the same period last year.

The number of advertised auction notices also dropped during the month of June. There were 495 auction announcements in June, an 18.6 percent drop from 608 a year ago. Year-to-date auction notices decreased 15.3 percent to 2,175 compared with 2,568 last year.

Contrary to what some home buyers have been lead to believe, there are not any secret lists of foreclusure properties that a select few can get their hands on. The vast majority of foreclosure properties are listed on the multiple listing service (MLS).