Bay State Foreclosure Report Mixed in January

Data regarding Massachusetts foreclosures in January was mixed, according to the most recent report released Tuesday by ""The Warren Group"":http://www.thewarrengroup.com/portal/, a Boston-based provider of real estate data in New England. Fewer foreclosures were initiated in January, but during the same month, the number of completed foreclosures increased.

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Lenders filed 1,874 petitions to foreclose in January, a 9 percent drop from December and a 4.4 percent drop from a year earlier. This marks the lowest level of Bay State foreclosure petitions in more than a year.

""Foreclosure activity, as measured by petitions to foreclose, has started to moderate, with the lowest level of petitions since December 2008,"" said Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group. ""The federal loan modification program was slow to make a dent in foreclosure activity, but recently lenders have accelerated their efforts.""

Although the number of initiated foreclosures decreased, the number of completed foreclosures increased. In January, 1,061 foreclosure deeds were recorded in Massachusetts, up from 857 the prior month and 978 a

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year earlier. According to The Warren Group, this was the highest number of foreclosures for the month of January since it began tracking statewide foreclosure activity in 2006.

Warren said the increase in completed foreclosures was likely due to the fact that foreclosure deeds are less predictable in terms of timing. He said lenders seem to take their paperwork down to the registry of deeds quite awhile after the auctions have been held. Warren said they've likely had a backlog and are proceeding to clear it up by turning in the paperwork, thus resulting in more foreclosure deeds recorded.

The number of auction announcements tracked by The Warren Group also surged in January. There were 2,385 announcements during the month, soaring 23 percent higher than December and 81.5 percent higher than January 2009.

""We've been seeing them [auction announcements] increase at a pretty steady clip,"" Warren said. ""In December they were up 60 percent, and in November they were up 96 percent.""

Looking forward, Warren said deeds themselves may continue to increase, but he said it is hard to know whether or not petitions to foreclose will keep falling. He explained that a persistent drop in initiated foreclosures would be an indication that the worst of the foreclosure problems are over. However, foreclosure petitions are still at high levels, and Warren said he would be cautious to think that the market is beyond the foreclosure problem.

""A big factor in the number of foreclosures that we're going to see in the future is going to be unemployment and underemployment,"" Warren said. ""If we can create more jobs, I think we'll begin to see fewer people falling into trouble with their homes and fewer foreclosures.""