That’s all the time it took one recent afternoon to complete the foreclosure auction, one of thousands happening on the lawns and sidewalks of Massachusetts homes at a rate of about one every hour.

Sotheby’s this is not.

About a half-dozen representatives of potential buyers milled out front. Dressed mostly in jeans and sweatshirts, they snapped photos with cellphone cameras as curious neighbors watched. The homeowner, too embarrassed to stay, had sought refuge at a nearby coffee shop.

“I don’t want to be here when it happens,’’ she said minutes earlier.

The auction itself went quickly. Five minutes and two bids later, the house was sold.

While much of the real estate industry has gone digital, foreclosure auctions survive as a throwback to centuries ago. Massachusetts law requires auctions to be held onsite under the purview of a licensed auctioneer. A few auctioneers still break a tree branch to prove they were present, a custom rooted in English common law.

The land-takings — often postponed multiple times — usually result in a lender owning the property. That’s because bids come in too low or there aren’t any prospective buyers. But either way, a foreclosure auction is a humiliating experience for the homeowner, whose financial ruin is on public display.

Auctioneers said they try to handle the proceedings with diplomacy and discretion.

“We’re very, very sensitive to these situations,’’ said Marianne F. Sullivan, an auctioneer and the president of Sullivan & Sullivan Auctioneers LLC, a Boston firm that holds more than 100 auctions a month.

As the state’s foreclosure crisis drags on, auctions are taking place at a record pace this year. Before the housing market collapsed, only a handful of foreclosure auctions were held each day across the state. But by the end of September, nearly 11,000 properties had been seized — 58.6 percent more than during the same period last year and more than in all of 2009, according to Warren Group, a Boston firm that tracks real estate.

Bay State Auction Co., which sold the Malden house, had scheduled 23 foreclosure auctions that same day. In one important way, however, the Beachview Avenue auction was unusual: There was a buyer, a lanky, gray-haired man who successfully bid $268,000.

So far this year, about 80 percent of deeds filed at foreclosure auctions have gone back to lenders, according to Warren Group. There are two reasons for the buybacks: Banks generally won’t accept bids for less than what is owed on the mortgage, and potential buyers, still unsure about prospects for home values increasing, are not willing to pay that much

Jim Robertson, a Boston developer who regularly attended auctions — a legal notice announcing each one must be published in a local newspaper — said bargains are hard to find.

“I went to the auctions for a solid year and it ended up being a waste of time,’’ Robertson said. “The banks essentially weren’t selling them.’’

Gary Klein, a Boston housing lawyer who works with homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure, said it does not have to be this way. Too often, lenders foreclose when it would serve everyone better if they worked with homeowners to modify a mortgage, he said. By lowering monthly payments or making other adjustments, Klein said, banks would not be stuck with unwanted properties, and more people would be able to stay in their homes.

“What’s crazy in this market is there continues to be a rush to foreclosure even though there’s no market for the properties,’’ he said.

At a foreclosure auction of a tidy Cape-style house on John Street in Revere last Wednesday, six potential bidders showed up. Most declined to comment and shied away from a photographer. One covered his face with the hood of his sweatshirt.

Auctioneer Mary Scimemi opened the bidding at $177,000. A bank representative responded with an offer of $176,000. The cast of would-be buyers murmured into cellphones, consulting with their backers. Most people who come to auctions are not private citizens looking for a home, but representatives of real estate investors hoping for a deal.

“Going once? Twice? Three times?’’ Scimemi asked.

“Sold back to the bank!’’ she declared after a pause.

Inside, Benjamin Palencia, his girlfriend, and her 3-year-old daughter ate lunch. Palencia said they have lived there for five months, renting it from a friend.

“I didn’t know he had a problem with this house,’’ Palencia said, adding that he isn’t sure whether he will be evicted, or where he might move.

In 23 states, lenders must receive approval from a judge before foreclosing on a home. That’s not the case in Massachusetts, where owners learn about auctions through certified letters from lenders. Homeowners have few options, unless they can afford to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit to dispute the land-taking.

At another recent auction of a well-kept Cape on Belnel Street in Hyde Park, Scimemi — the auctioneer who works for Bay State Auction — was surrounded by a crowd, including a group of activists from City Life/Vida Urbana, a Jamaica Plain nonprofit that regularly protests foreclosures. The group is angry at banks for not doing more to help people keep their homes, and is upset at investors who, they say, are trying to take advantage of someone else’s misfortune.

The activists held signs, and one protester, Marshall Cooper Jr., yelled: “That’s right. Take a walk investors, take a walk brother.’’

There were two potential bidders in attendance but neither countered the offer of the lender, Beneficial Massachusetts Inc. It bought the property for $174,000, and the homeowner will now face eviction.

At the Malden auction, the ending was far different, but no less dramatic. The gray-haired mystery bidder who bought the Beachview Avenue house turned out to be the homeowner’s father.

He put down a $5,000 nonrefundable deposit, and has 30 days to pay the balance, helping his daughter avoid becoming another foreclosed owner looking for a place to live.

“The foreclosure picture in Massachusetts hasn’t really improved that much,” said Timothy Warren, head of the Warren Group.

Lenders filed 2,220 petitions to foreclose – the first step in the foreclosure process – last month, a nearly 22 percent drop from a year earlier. But foreclosure petitions increased 5 percent in June from 2,110 in May.

“The level of foreclosure starts for the first half of the year is only slightly lower than a year ago,” said Warren.

“We have been averaging just over 2,200 foreclosure petitions a month this year compared to about 2,300 a month last year.”

While the number of foreclosures initiated in June declined, the number of completed foreclosures more than doubled from a year earlier. A total of 1,313 foreclosure deeds – the final step in seizing a home – were recorded, a 109 percent jump from 628 in June 2009.

Foreclosure deeds surged in every county in the Bay State except Nantucket in June.

Avon, MA. 02322

• 1 Family

• 2 Bedrooms

• 1 Full Bath

• GLA = 1,008 Sq. Ft.

• Lot = .72 acres

• Heat – Forced hot water/Oil

• Exterior – Vinyl siding

• Built in 1920

• Book: 19826

• Page: 279

TERMS: Five Thousand Dollars ($ 5,000) will be required to be paid by certified or bank check at the time and place of sale as earnest money. The balance is to be paid by certified or bank check within thirty (30) days of the date of the sale and shall be deposited in escrow with the Law Office of John E. McCluskey, Esq., P.C. 932 Main Street, Brockton, Massachusetts. A deed will be provided to purchaser for recording upon receipt in fulll of the purchase price. Other terms will be announced at the sale.

Click here for more information:

http://www.callahanre.com/flyer151easthigh.pdf

According to a new report from RealtyTrac, the marketer of foreclosed properties, 31% of all sales were foreclosures. And homebuyers purchasing those properties paid a whopping 27% less, on average, compared to sales of non-distressed homes.

These foreclosure sales include properties sold in short sales or after a bank repossession, known as REOs in industry terms. It does not include transfers from borrowers to banks, as in a sheriff’s auction.

REOs, those homes already taken back from borrowers, commanded lower prices than short sales and other pre-foreclosures. The average REO sold for 34% less than conventional sales while pre-foreclosures averaged only 15% less.

Part of the reason for the bigger price cut for REOs is that many of them come to the market in poor condition, their previous owners either unable to or unwilling to maintain them.

Beaten-down condos: ‘Deals of lifetime’

Foreclosures have become a dominant feature of many real estate markets, finding willing buyers among young bargain hunters and savvy housing market veterans.

During 2009, more than 1.2 million property sales involved foreclosures. That grew 25% compared with the year before, and 2,500% from 2005.

“That number boggled my mind,” said Rick Sharga, a spokesman for RealtyTrac. “A 2,500% increase over a four-year period surprised even us.”

Foreclosure sales were highest, expectedly in the bubble states. In Nevada, for example, they represented nearly 64% of transactions. And that’s actually an improvement over the 75% of all sales during the first three months of 2009.

Surprisingly, both Massachusetts and Rhode Island had higher incidences of foreclosure sales than did the bubble state of Florida, at 42% vs. 39%.

“Massachusetts and Rhode Island were two of the only Northeastern states that racked up unsustainable price increases during the boom,” pointed out Sharga.

Managing foreclosure inventories

Lenders have been trying to manage their inventories of foreclosed homes to prevent them from flooding the market and dragging down prices.

“It will be interesting to watch how they will manage the inventory levels of distressed properties on the market in order to prevent more dramatic price deterioration,” said Saccacio.

Sharga said the impact of foreclosure sales on the rest of the homes for sale can be very strong. He cited Nevada, where the price difference between foreclosed properties and conventional sales is very narrow, only 17%.

“That state had such a high incidence of foreclosure sales it managed to depreciate the entire inventory there,” he said

Irvine, Calif. — A $1M foreclosed Weston, Mass. house is among 60+ foreclosures that will be auctioned Saturday March 27 at Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel by Real Estate Disposition, the nation’s leading real estate auction company.

The Weston property is at 193 Boston Post Rd is a 4,900 square foot 14-room property. Here is a link to the property – http://www.auction.com/property.php?auctionID=H-152&itemID=178249&venueId=1057&start=0&flgRemoved=0&flgEscrowed=0.

“This is a great opportunity for a homebuyer or investor to purchase a beautiful property in a highly deserable part of the state and country,” says REDC CEO Jeff Frieden.

Here are some of the other best potential deals in the auction:

300 Raleigh Tavern Ln North Andover, MA 01845 — 3219 sq ft 10-room property previously valued at $700K that has a starting bid of $119K (http://www.auction.com/property.php?auctionID=H-152&start=0&itemID=178250&srch=&flgRemoved=0&flgEscrowed=0).

2 Village Ln South Hamilton, MA 01982 — 1776 sq st 6 room house previously valued to $415K, starting bid $99K (http://www.auction.com/property.php?auctionID=H-152&start=0&itemID=176507&srch=&flgRemoved=0&flgEscrowed=0).

To see all the properties, go to REDC’s web site, www.Auction.com.

The auction is part of REDC’s record 125 auctions in 71 days. The company has auctioned a U.S.- leading 7,350 properties for $415 million so far this year.

“2010 is the year of the foreclosure,” Frieden says, referring to the three to seven million foreclosures that are hitting the market this year, doubling the number from 2009. “The market is white hot. The demand is there along with the inventory.”-

The dismal state of foreclosures in New England and the U.S. is staggering. The State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, which is made up of state banking regulators and attorneys general, released a report that reports, “Despite efforts of servicers, homeowners, and the government, the foreclosure crisis continues to worsen. These signs point to more foreclosures in 2010 than in 2009.”

In response to the millions of foreclosures hitting the market, REDC ramped up operations to auction bank-owned residential homes and condos, commercial buildings and notes in more than 47 states, both in live auctions and online.

Thousands of these foreclosures will change hands through REDC’s auctions, which directly impacts the local and national economy by helping to minimize the ramifications of another economic crash. REDC auctions have emerged as a hot new trend in home buying and investing, whether it’s residential, commercial real estate or notes.

Since its launch in 1990, REDC has helped tens of thousands of families and individuals purchase homes for affordable prices through its unique auction process, establishing the company as the global leader in real estate auction marketing.

“REDC’s real estate auctions have gained tremendous appeal and popularity among buyers and sellers in today’s market,” Frieden says. “In fact, the real estate auction industry now plays a major role in property sales in the U.S. As a result, REDC has helped make auctions a preferred choice over conventional, time-consuming and expensive real estate sales methods.”

REDC also conducts commercial and notes auctions, which can also be reviewed at www.Auction.com. REDC’s headquarters are in Irvine, California with offices in Dallas, New York and London.

GE Business Financial Services Inc. is foreclosing on the 5-year-old hotel and an adjacent unfinished restaurant building after owner Jiten Hotel Management Inc. defaulted on a $16.2 million mortgage.

“The loan matured, and they didn’t pay it,” said Marcia Robinson, the Boston attorney handling the sale. “That’s the biggest default that you can have.”

Based in Brockton, Jiten owns 15 hotels in five states.

Jiten CEO Nayan Patel said he’s been trying to negotiate with GE Financial, but the lending climate is difficult.

“GE doesn’t want to extend (the loan), and nobody would finance it,” Patel said. “I can’t cover the mortgage.”

The credit crunch is hitting hotel owners across the country, according to Matt Arrants, managing director of Pinnacle Advisory Group, a Boston hospitality consulting firm.

“We’re starting to see more and more of this now, where lenders are taking properties back and selling them,” he said. “There’s a lot of money out there looking for deals. They’re buying at a discount, so it’s easier to get financing if the price is right. Some buyers are even going all-cash.”

Affluent towns including Nantucket, Concord, Weston, and Winchester, saw triple or quadruple digit percent increases in foreclosure deeds during the first 11 months of the year, according to data released yesterday by Warren Group, a private company that tracks real estate data.

The numbers are tiny to be sure – 19 homes in Nantucket and six in Concord – a problem dwarfed by the hundreds of homes lost to foreclosure in cities like Springfield, Worcester, and Brockton. However, the increasing problem in costlier towns presents evidence that the battered economy and an 8.8 percent unemployment rate is leaving no community untouched, many housing experts agree.

“The wealthier communities are experiencing maybe for the first time the hardship that low-income and minority communities have been feeling for many years,’’ said Bruce Marks, chief executive of the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Jamaica Plain.

Statewide, the number of foreclosure deeds, which represent a completed foreclosure, dropped 26.8 percent to 8,409 between January and November compared with the same time last year, according to Warren Group. But petitions, the first step in a foreclosure process, increased 28.2 percent this year to 25,868 – a sign that the foreclosure crisis has yet to ebb.

Many communities that were hardest hit by foreclosures over the last several years saw the problem slow in 2009. For example, in Worcester the number of foreclosure deeds fell to 445 between January and November, a 36.8 percent drop compared with the same time last year. Dorchester, the Boston neighborhood most plagued by streets of boarded-up and abandoned buildings, saw foreclosure deeds fall 40.5 percent to 352 this year.

Dean Baker, codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., said that poorer neighborhoods most affected by the subprime market and predatory lending probably have seen the worst wave of the foreclosure crisis, which occurred in 2007 and 2008. Most vulnerable homeowners already have lost their homes. In wealthier neighborhoods, residents are now being affected by the economy and housing price declines that can wipe out all their equity, he said.

“You have record high rates of unemployment for people with college degrees,’’ Baker said.

In Nantucket, where median home prices hover at about $1.25 million, 19 homes were lost to foreclosure during the first 11 months of the year, up 1,800 percent from the one recorded foreclosure in 2008, according to Warren Group. Foreclosure petitions also jumped to 75, a 102.7 percent increased compared with the same period in 2008.

Weston, where median home prices reach $1.2 million, saw a rise in foreclosure deeds between January and November of this year to six compared with two during the same time last year. Seventeen homeowners went into foreclosure this year, representing a 41 percent increase from the year before, according to Warren data.

Virginia Pratt, a foreclosure prevention counselor at the nonprofit, Jamaica Plain-based Ecumenical Social Action Committee, said she gets more calls from distressed homeowners in the suburbs. She said many with incomes of about $150,000 talk about losing their jobs or having a health complication that limits their income. They no longer can access credit to help them through lean times and aren’t able to cut costs enough.

“The lower income doesn’t support the higher income lifestyle,’’ she said. “It’s people being stuck.’’

Statistics regarding foreclosures in Massachusetts for the month of October were a mixed bag of news, according to Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group.

According to the latest report released by the Warren Group, a provider of real estate data in New England, foreclosures in Massachusetts rose nearly 30 percent in October compared to September, but on a year-to-year basis the number of foreclosures in October 2009 dipped, with 85 fewer than the same time last year.

While the number of new foreclosures initiated in the state in October dropped 9 percent from September, these same results created an 11 percent increase from the same period last year.

“The number of foreclosures in October was actually the third highest so far this year. But the pace of foreclosures is still lower than it was last spring and summer when there was an average of nearly 1,200 foreclosures a month,” Warren said. “Still, a key concern is the level of petitions to foreclose, which indicate how many distressed property owners are at risk of foreclosure in Massachusetts. Lenders have filed an average of over 2,500 foreclosure petitions a month since May.”

As the first step in the state’s foreclosure process, petitions to foreclose decreased 9.1 percent in October, compared to September. While month-to-month numbers were down, there was an 11.2 percent increase in petitions to foreclose this October compared to October 2008. Year-to-date petitions to foreclose have surged 27 percent. Due to high delinquency rates, unemployment, and income issues many homeowners are facing, Warren said he fears this initial step of foreclosure will increase in the next few months.

Completed foreclosures, referred to as foreclosure deeds, rose 29.6 percent from September to October this year, but compared to October 2008, this number decreased 8.5 percent, the Warren Group said. The 7,707 foreclosure deeds recorded in Massachusetts so far this year show a 27.3 percent decline from the 10,606 completed foreclosures in 2008.

On the auction front, announcements increased 38 percent in October compared to September of this year and surged 57.3 percent from the same period last year. With a total of 15,273 auction announcements so far in 2009, numbers are down 9.8 percent compared the 16,930 in 2008.

According to the Warren Group, a number of factors have helped temper foreclosure activity in Massachusetts. Most noted of these factors were federal efforts to offer loan modifications to troubled borrowers and a Massachusetts Land Court decision forcing some lenders to hold back on foreclosure proceedings until proper mortgage assignments have been made. Additionally, a state law went into effect last year which slowed the rate of foreclosure petition filings by requiring lenders to give delinquent borrowers 90 days to catch up with missed payments before starting a foreclosure proceeding.

Just as all the hoopla over the extension of the home buyer tax credit starts to fade, along comes the The Mortgage Bankers Association to bring the market back to reality.

One in seven loans is now in foreclosure, up from one in ten at the start of the year. It’s the highest on record since the MBA began track this stuff in 1972.

And forget about all those goofy subprime loans. The driver now is the ever rising jobless rate, which has topped 10 percent and may top 11 percent or higher before it settles out.

Foreclosures on prime mortgages accounted for 33 percent of all foreclosures last quarter, up from 21 percent at the start of the year, the group reports.

The mortgage bankers project rising foreclosures well into 2010, not leveling off unitl the jobless rate starts to moderate.

And the local numbers don’t look much better, either.

The number of homes seized and sold by lenders, the last step in a months long process, has actually been on the decline so far this year in Massachusetts.

But the number of initial foreclosure notifications sent out by lenders kicking off the process is up, and up dramatically, according to local real estate data tracker the Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.

Initial filings were up 11 percent in October over October 2008 and have risen 27 percent year to date.

Here again rising unemployment, not foolish subprime loans, appears to be driving the increase.

It certainly helps back up Rep. Barney Frank’s case that we need to start thinking about emergency loans to jobless homeowners.

And the foreclosure debate is clearly shifting now, from one about personal responsibility to the fallout of a brutal recession.

That’s my take. How about you?

Doris M. Nabors voluntarily agreed to work with Habitat to allow the house to be sold at sheriff’s sale, so the nonprofit can recover the less than $10,000 she owed, Habitat director Veronna Drane said.

Nabors now lives in an apartment in Plymouth. She refinanced the house on the city’s near south side with CitiFinancial Inc. for $24,602 in 2007, then $31,868 in 2008, without Habitat’s knowledge.

But generally, other “partner families” living in the 43 houses the local Habitat chapter has built or rehabbed since its founding in the early 1990s are faring well, despite the recent economic downturn, Drane said.

“Our families are doing good,” she said.

Of the 43 homes, two have been lost to foreclosure after families refinanced with outside banks then had trouble making payments.

And Habitat has worked out loan modifications with two other families, to allow more time to pay off their debt while they get past temporary financial difficulties.

“They lost a job, things like that,” Drane said.

Habitat began putting financial safeguards into place after local officials realized in the early part of the decade that lenders seemed to be targeting Mansfield’s lower-income neighborhoods for home refinancing schemes.

Fair Housing Director Don Mitchell said he has heard about aggressive marketing to homeowners convincing them to refinance for more than the house actually was worth. Sometimes it is under terms that made it unlikely a homeowner could pay them back.

Habitat’s early partner families “were wide open to predatory lenders,” Drane said.

The actual worth of the house they lived in was much greater than the debt on paper, for homes built or rehabbed using volunteer construction crews. So Habitat began taking out second mortgages to cover the difference on its later homes.

“That makes it less attractive for predatory lenders to move in and sweep up that equity,” Olecki said.

“Unfortunately she (Nabors) was one of the first mortgages we did,” she said.

Richland County homeless coalition agencies also began sponsoring workshops on budgeting and financing, for lower-income families who might be targeted for refinancing.

Habitat learned too late that Nabor had run into difficulties, after she began having difficulty making payments, Drane said.

Nabors owes Habitat for Humanity less than $10,000, but Citifinancial Inc. holds a lien for $30,000 from the refinancing, Drane said.

“The house will go to sheriff’s sale. This particular house, I don’t know that it will sell for what’s outstanding on (both) liens. We’re first in line,” she said.

Attorney Joseph Olecki, a former Habitat board member representing the nonprofit, said Habitat doesn’t like to foreclose on homes, but needs to do that because of the debt Nabors owes Citifinancial.

“We would just take the property back, but the owner took out a second mortgage and can’t just give us a deed,” he said.

Nabors moved out on her own.

“We didn’t kick her out,” he said.

When she moved into the Greenwood Avenue home, she was looking for a place to raise her family. But she’s older now, and does not want the responsibility of taking care of a multistory house, Drane said.

She has cooperated with Habitat on its plan to foreclose on 72 Greenwood to recover debt.

“She would love to sign it over to another family,” it that were possible, Drane said.

A different Habitat house at 170 Boston Ave. was sold back to Habitat at sheriff’s sale a year ago for $32,000 after its owner got involved in a refinancing tangle, the Habitat director said. That house has been rehabbed, for $12,200, and a second Habitat family moved in recently.

Other than those foreclosures and two loan modifications, “we still have families out there who are paying, and who are very appreciative about the opportunity they have had to own a Habitat home,” the Habitat director said.

“It’s such a good deal for people. They’re paying no interest,” Olecki said. “Most do pretty well. But there are people who fall behind.”

The Richland County chapter reached a milestone last year when the first of its 43 partner families paid off their debt. “We have another that is within $500 of being paid off,” Drane said.

“Habitat is continuing to move along. We will be closing on another house within the month,” she said.

Drane said perhaps 10 percent of all houses Habitat sponsored over the past two decades were rehabs, rather than new homes.

Habitat has begun negotiating with the City of Mansfield to see whether it’s possible to buy and rehab one or two houses “that need a little bit of love.”

Returning to rehab projects makes sense for the nonprofit, Drane said. Habitat can build a new home for $75,000. But, she added, “we might be able to do two, maybe three rehabs for that.”

“Our hope is that through the (federal) Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding that is coming down that we could acquire a home that was foreclosed on — or two — turn them around, and offer them at zero-percent interest to a low-income family,” Drane said.

But Habitat also is grappling with new construction projects.

The First Energy Foundation offered the Richland County board a donation of $25,000. Habitat is now seeking about $50,000 in matching funds to build a new house.

“Like many nonprofits, we are struggling to find the funding to do what we do. Times are tough. We are in desperate need of funding,” Drane said.