Foreclosure petitions fall in Mass., Bristol County in Oct.

FORECLOSURE petitions fell 15.6 percent in October compared with October 2015 in the Bay State, and plunged 20.2 percent over the same time period in Bristol County, according to The Warren Group. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/DANIEL ACKER
FORECLOSURE petitions fell 15.6 percent in October compared with October 2015 in the Bay State, and plunged 20.2 percent over the same time period in Bristol County, according to The Warren Group. / BLOOMBERG FILE PHOTO/DANIEL ACKER

BOSTON – Foreclosure petitions fell 15.6 percent in October compared with October 2015 in the Bay State, and plunged 20.2 percent over the same time period in Bristol County, The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, said Tuesday.
Massachusetts lenders filed 958 petitions to foreclose in October, compared with 1,135 filed in October last year. Year to date, 10,530 petitions have been filed, a 9.3 percent increase from the same period last year. In Bristol County, petitions declined to 99 from 124 a year ago, but increased 6.1 percent year to date, to 1,122 from 1,057.
Petitions mark the first step in the foreclosure process, when lenders file notice of their intention to foreclosure with the Commonwealth’s Land Court.
“I think it’s safe to say the foreclosure starts are finally in decline again,” Timothy Warren, CEO of The Warren Group, said in a statement. “The backlog of old delinquent mortgages being fed into the foreclosure pipeline is drying up after two-and-a-half years of heavy processing work. The recent issue was never weakness in the real estate market or in mortgage underwriting. It was backlog of bad loans where action had been delayed.”
A total of 566 auction notices were filed in October, 26.2 percent fewer than 767 filed in October 2015. There have been 7,398 auctions scheduled in Massachusetts in 2016, a 29.9 percent increase from the same stretch in 2015.
In Bristol County, auctions fell 40.2 percent, to 61 in October from 102 in October 2015, and climbed 7.6 percent year to date, to 880 from 818.
An auction notice is a legal advertisement that the lender has scheduled an auction.
There were 548 foreclosure deeds filed statewide in October, a 46.5 percent increase from 374 deeds filed last year. A total of 5,250 deeds have been recorded in Massachusetts year to date, 48.6 percent more than the year-ago period.
In Bristol County, deeds jumped 52.1 percent in October, to 73 from 48 a year ago. Year to date, deeds climbed 54.3 percent in the county, to 645 from 418.
Deeds represent completed foreclosures, when lenders record a new deed at the Registry of Deeds indicating there has been a change in the ownership of the foreclosed property.

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