Foreclosures jump 62% in 2008 in Massachusetts
Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, reported on January 21, 2008 in the Boston Herald that foreclosures in Massachusetts jumped to a total of 12,430, up from 7,653 in 2007 and 3,130 in 2006. In December, there were 936 foreclosures, a 37 percent increase from 683 in December 2007.
“Sadly, over 12,000 people lost their homes to foreclosure last year,” said Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group in a prepared statement. “While foreclosure deeds were increasing by double-digit percentages during the latter part of 2008 compared to the prior year, the increases were nowhere near what was happening in the first half of the year when foreclosure deeds were more than double what they were in 2007.”
In a sign that programs designed to keep families at risk of foreclosure in their homes appear to be working, foreclosure petitions, the first step in the process, ended the year below the 2007 levels. Lenders filed 21,804 petitions in 2008, down 26.3 percent from 2007 when there were 29,572.
December marked the fourth consecutive month in 2008 that foreclosures fell under 1,000. Nearly 60 percent of the foreclosures occurred from March through August, when more than 1,000 foreclosure deeds were recorded each month.
The drop-off is linked to a 2008 measure that requires lenders to give delinquent borrowers 90 days to pay off mortgage loan defaults.
In December, foreclosure petitions jumped 21.7 percent to 1,625 from 1,335 in November, but were 40.4 percent lower than the 2,724 petitions filed during the same month in 2007. Lenders filed more than half of the year’s petitions during the first four months of 2008.
Foreclosure petitions have been dwindling in the last few months, Warren said. In early 2008, lenders were filing an average of 3,000 petitions to foreclose each month. Toward the end of the year, that number fell to below 2,000, he noted.
“If there is any good news to report, it’s that there weren’t as many people entering the foreclosure process in 2008 as there were in 2007,” said Warren. “The new law requiring lenders to give homeowners three months to cure mortgage defaults played a big role in the dip in foreclosure petitions in the middle of the year.”
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
[...] Remember for comparison, in Massachusetts, a total of 12,430 foreclosure deeds were recorded in 2008, up from 7,653 in 2007 and 3,130 in 2006, according to the Warren Group reported - Foreclosures jump 62% in 2008 in Massachusetts. [...]