Worcester County tops state in foreclosure activity in 2015

• By Lisa Eckelbecker
  Telegram & Gazette Staff

  
  Posted Feb. 2, 2016 at 5:45 PM
  Updated at 8:10 AM
  
  

  Worcester County posted more foreclosure activity during 2015 than any other Massachusetts county, according to new data released Tuesday.
  

  The Warren Group of Boston said lenders launched 208 new foreclosure actions in Worcester County during December 2015, up 117 percent over the same month a year earlier, according to new data.
  

  It brought the total of new foreclosure actions in Worcester County to 2,152 during 2015, a jump of 61 percent over 2014 levels, the data showed.
  

  In addition, 116 foreclosures were completed in Worcester County during December, up 63 percent over the same month a year earlier. For the full year, 978 foreclosures were completed, up 19 percent over 2014.
  

  A high rate of subprime mortgages to local homebuyers during the housing bubble contributed to Worcester’s foreclosure problem, according to Mullen Sawyer, executive director of the Oak Hill Community Development Corp. Last year, the agency helped homeowners keep 128 homes, he said.
  

  “We continue to see homeowners in distress,” Mr. Sawyer said. “Quite often, they’ve been in the process for several years.”
  

  Foreclosure activity, though surging, remains well below levels recorded during the recession of 2007-2009. Lenders started 4,273 foreclosures in 2009 in Worcester County. A year later, lenders closed 3,932 foreclosures in the county.
  

  State regulations put in place after the housing bubble burst temporarily slowed foreclosures in recent years, but lenders have grown more comfortable with those regulations and the chance to resell properties, according to The Warren Group, publisher of the trade journal Banker & Tradesman.
  

  “The indications are many of these are old delinquencies that the banks delayed acting on, not a new glut of bad loans,” said Timothy Warren Jr., Warren Group chief executive, in a statement.
  

  Statewide, lenders started 11,767 foreclosures in 2015, a 55 percent increase over 2014, the Warren Group reported. Lenders completed 4,399 foreclosures, up 21 percent over 2014.
  

  State Rep. Mary S. Keefe, D-Worcester, and state Sen. Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester, filed legislation in 2015 that would have required lenders to try mediation with homeowners before foreclosure, but it was never passed.
  

  Grace Ross, coordinator of the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending, said mediation could have an impact on ongoing foreclosures.
  

  “I think we’re all going to look back on this time as a travesty,” she said. “It’s so unnecessary.”