Published in the January 4, 2017 edition
BOSTON – Going against a state trend, foreclosure petitions in Wakefield were up slightly last year from the year before.
According to a new report from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, there were 26 foreclosure petitions filed by lenders to those with property here through the end of November. There were 22 filed through the same time last year.
In Massachusetts foreclosure petitions fell by 15.9 percent in November compared with November 2015, according to The Warren Group report.
Lenders in Massachusetts filed 880 petitions to foreclose in November, compared with 1,047 filed in November of last year. For Wakefield, four were filed, the same as in November 2015.
There have been 11,410 petitions filed year to date in the Bay State, a 6.8 percent increase from last year’s mark through November with 10,680. Petitions mark the first step in the foreclosure process, when lenders file notice of their intention to foreclose with the Commonwealth’s Land Court.
“Foreclosure starts have slowed in the second half of 2016,” said Timothy Warren., CEO of The Warren Group. “After sizeable increases in foreclosure starts for two-and-a-half years, we have seen double digit decreases in each of the past three months.”
There were 602 auction notices filed in November, a 4.9 percent decrease from the 633 filed in November 2015. There have been 8,000 auctions scheduled in Massachusetts in 2016, a 26.4 percent increase from the same stretch in 2015 when there were 6,328.
No auction notices were filed for Wakefield properties for the year through the end of November. An auction notice is a legal advertisement that the lender has scheduled an auction and publicly announced the time, date and address in local newspapers.
There were 448 foreclosure deeds filed in November, a 12.8 percent increase from the 397 deeds filed at the same time last year. There have been a total of 5,698 deeds recorded in Massachusetts year to date, a 45.0 percent increase from the 3,930 filed through November 2015. 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.
There were nine foreclosure deeds filed for Wakefield properties for the year through the end of Novembeer 2016, compared to nine by that time the year before.
