Foreclosures leap 60 percent

PHOTO/Michael novinson The property at 39 and 41 Sophia Dr., were among the more than 700 Worcester properties listed by the city as being under foreclosure in 2014.

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By State House News Service

The number of foreclosures initiated by lenders in Massachusetts rose more than 60 percent in September, the 19th consecutive month to see a double-digit rise in foreclosure starts, according to a report released Thursday by the Warren Group.

Mortgage lenders filed 1,179 petitions to foreclose in September, a 60.6 percent increase over the 734 filed in September 2014, according to the report.

Through the first nine months of 2015, lenders have filed nearly 1,000 more foreclosure petitions - which represent the first step in the foreclosure process - than through the entirety of 2014, according to the Warren Group.

Despite the sharp and steady rise in foreclosure petitions, analysts said the data does not indicate a new wave of homeowners unable to pay their mortgage debt and that the majority of loans in foreclosure were originated at least five years ago.

"The dramatic percentage increases in the number of foreclosure starts this year is the result of lenders first closing the spigot on the number of delinquent mortgages entering the foreclosure pipeline in March of 2013 and then opening it back up again in March of 2014," Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of the Warren Group, said in a statement. "This was done in response to state and federal programs to slow or prevent foreclosures, plus some court cases that questioned the procedures that lenders were using in pursuing their rights to foreclose."

September also saw the filing of 551 foreclosure deeds -- which represent completed foreclosures -- a 9.3 percent increase over the September 2014 total of 504, according to the Warren Group.