Boston’s Rich Suburbs See Foreclosure Increases

Boston foreclosed homes for sale continue to rise in affluent suburbs as unemployment creeps into upscale communities, jumbo lending becomes restricted and property values fall to their lowest levels, based on data from real estate research company Warren Group.

In Nantucket, upscale houses priced at $1.6 million in 2008 were being sold off at $1.2 million in 2009. Partly because of this drop in values, 19 homes in the area went into foreclosure in 2009.

In Weston, where six million-dollar homes were foreclosed in 2009, homes priced at $1.5 million in 2007 were being sold off at $1.2 million in the latter part of 2009.

In Wellesley, nine upscale homes priced between $870,000 and $3.6 million have been thrown into the foreclosure process. Homes worth more than $1 million in 2007 are now priced at around $847,500. Because of the tightening of jumbo credit, flipping houses in this upscale community has become impossible, with home sales dropping from 315 units in 2008 to 267 units in 2009.

Bruce Marks, CEO of Jamaica Plain-based nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, said that for the first time, wealthy communities never touched by difficulties such as Freddie Mac foreclosures are experiencing what minority and low-income communities have been experiencing for many years.

Based on the Warren Group report, the number of Boston foreclosed homes for sale surged as delinquent mortgages in affluent suburbs tripled and quadrupled in number in 2009.

The numbers of foreclosed properties in the affluent suburbs of Concord, Nantucket, Winchester and Weston are small compared to the hundreds of foreclosures in lower-income communities like Springfield, Lynn and Worcester, but the occurrence of foreclosures in these wealthy enclaves show that the 8.8-percent jobless rate and the declining economy are affecting all communities.

Statewide, completed foreclosures dropped by nearly 27 percent in 2009 to 8,409 cases, but foreclosure petitions increased by almost 29 percent to 25,868, showing that many homeowners are still experiencing harrowing financial difficulties.

While foreclosures in lower income neighborhoods have slowed down, foreclosures in wealthy enclaves have surged. In Worcester, foreclosures fell by almost 37 percent. In Dorchester, the Boston area most battered by abandoned buildings and boarded-up homes, foreclosures fell by 41 percent.

Wealthier neighborhoods, in contrast, increased their foreclosure rates by three- to four-digit percentages. In Nantucket, for instance, foreclosures increased in 2009 by 1,800 percent.

Comments

No comments yet.

Leave a comment