Jan. foreclosure starts up 50 percent

The Warren Group Foreclosure petitions have been on the rise in Massachusetts for the last 23 months.

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Foreclosure petitions continued to increase in the Bay State, posting the 23rd consecutive month of year-over-year double-digit increases in petitions filings as lenders continue to process long-delinquent mortgages.

The 924 petitions filed by lenders in January represent the first step in the foreclosure process, and a 49.51 percent year-over-year growth for the month, according to a report from The Warren Group. This is the highest number of petitions reported in January since 2013.

The foreclosure petitions in Worcester County were below the state average, only growing 19 percent year-over-year for January to 53 petitions. The city of Worcester, however, accounted for the vast majority of those petitions, with the 49 petitions filed in January representing 44 percent year-over-year growth.

Middlesex County had 118 petitions filed for a 57 percent increase over the previous January. The number of fully foreclosed properties leaped 425 percent to 42 for the month.

Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, said that the numbers for the state are within the range that the organization has seen within the last two years. The numbers are also well below the peak activity seen between 2005 and 2010, he said.

“The numbers have increased for the past two years as lenders opened the pipeline spigot on processing long-delinquent mortgages, sending those homeowners into the foreclosure process,” Warren said.

Statewide there were 745 foreclosure auctions scheduled in January, a 29.57 percent increase from January 2015, when there were 575 auctions scheduled. There were 348 foreclosure deeds recorded in January, a 35.41 percent increase from the 257 recorded in January 2015. These deeds represent completed foreclosures, when lenders put the change in ownership of the foreclosed property in the public record at registries of deeds.