Mortgage foreclosures up in Springfield, region, across Massachusetts

A single-family home in Springfield that was auctioned off following foreclosure. (File photo | The Republican)

By Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com
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on April 01, 2016 at 7:01 AM, updated April 01, 2016 at 7:10 AM

Real Estate

SPRINGFIELD — The number of early-stage home mortgage foreclosures in Springfield was up 83 percent over the first two months of 2016 compared with the same time period last year.

The number of new foreclosure petitions in January and February of 2016 was 121. There were 66 of these early-stage petitions for the city in the first two months of 2015.

As far as foreclosure deeds being filed – typically the last stage of the process –there were 16 in February 2015 and 24 in February 2016, a 50 percent increase.

Deeds were up 35 percent year-to-date with 46 in the first two months of 2016 and 34 in January and February 2015.

It is part of a statewide pattern, according to The Warren group, a Boston-based provider of real estate data that compiles foreclosure data from county registries of deeds. The Warren Group believes these foreclosures are part of the continuing fallout from the 2008 financial crisis.

Statewide, The Warren Group said, lenders filed 1,264 petitions to foreclose in February this year, compared with 868 filed in February 2015.

This was the highest number of petitions filed in a February since 2012.

There were 2,188 petitions filed in the first two months of 2016 across Massachusetts. That was a 47.2 percent increase from the 1,486 filed in January and February 2015.

There were 519 foreclosure deeds filed in February 2015, The Warren Group said. That was a 66.9 percent increase from the 311 deeds filed in February 2015.

There were a total of 867 deeds recorded in Massachusetts in January and February of 2016, a 52.6 percent increase from the 568 filed through February 2015.

State and federal laws made it harder to foreclose in the wake of the 2008 meltdown. That means some lenders are only now getting a chance to clear their books of long-delinquent accounts.
Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, said:

"While there's no doubt some new delinquencies are occurring, the majority of what we're seeing as 'new' foreclosures are loans that have been delinquent for quite some time. Lenders continue to work through what remains of their backlog from several years ago, when the entire industry ground to a halt to await the outcome of legislative and regulatory changes and updates."

He discuses the situation in a podcast, available here.

County-by-county statistics:

Hampden: Petitions are up 75 percent from 145 in the first two months of 2015 to 254 in January and February 2016. Foreclosure deeds are up 34 percent from 76 in the first two months of 2015 to 102 for the same period in 2016.

Hampshire: Petitions are up 52 percent from 31 in the first two months of 2015 to 47 in January and February 2016. Deeds are up 40 percent from 10 in the first two months of 2015 to 14 in 2016.

Franklin: Petitions are down 24 percent from 29 in the first two months of 2015 to 22 in January and February 2016. Foreclosure deeds are up 117 percent from six in the first two months of 2015 to 13 in 2016.