Bay State Foreclosure Petitions Drop in June, Deeds Continue to Climb

The number of foreclosures started by lenders in Massachusetts during the month of June decreased from a year earlier, the second straight month that petitions to foreclose have declined, according to a new report by the Boston-based research firm ""the Warren Group"":http://www.thewarrengroup.com.

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Lenders filed 2,220 petitions to foreclose â€" which mark the first step in the foreclosure process in Massachusetts â€" in June, a 21.7 percent drop from 2,835 a year earlier. However, June's foreclosure petitions were up 5.2 percent from 2,110 in May, the Warren Group reported.

Foreclosure petitions have exceeded 2,000 since February, the company says. A total of 13,338 foreclosure petitions have been filed so far this year statewide, down 3.4 percent from the same period in 2009.

""The foreclosure picture in Massachusetts hasn't really improved that much,"" said Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO

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of the Warren Group. ""The level of foreclosure starts for the first half of the year is only slightly lower than a year ago. We have been averaging just over 2,200 foreclosure petitions a month this year compared to about 2,300 a month last year.""

Even though the number of foreclosures initiated in June declined, the number of completed foreclosures more than doubled from a year earlier.

Based on data from the Warren Group, a total of 1,313 foreclosure deeds were recorded in Massachusetts last month, a 109.1 percent jump from 628 in June 2009. Foreclosure deeds also climbed 1.4 percent from May's 1,294 foreclosures.

This is the fifth month this year that foreclosure deeds surpassed 1,000 in the Bay State. Foreclosure deeds, which represent completed foreclosures, surged in every county except Nantucket in June. Year-to-date foreclosure deeds rose 56.7 percent to 7,431 from a year earlier.

""Foreclosures which were initiated a year ago are now being completed, and the figures are staggering,"" Warren said. ""We are on pace to exceed the peak foreclosure level seen in 2008 when more than 12,000 homeowners statewide lost their homes to foreclosure.""

The number of auction announcements tracked by the Warren Group last month also rose. Auction announcements shot up 64.8 percent to 2,558 compared to 1,552 in June 2009. A total of 16,531 auction notices have been tracked by the company this year, up 124 percent from a year ago.