Mass. foreclosure activity up in October

Foreclosure starts across Massachusetts in October reached their highest level in nearly two years and marked eight consecutive months of year-over-year monthly increases, according to The Warren Group.

The organization’s data, released Tuesday morning, found that in October, lenders filed 965 foreclosure petitions – which launch the foreclosure process - up from 504 during October 2013. There have been 6,384 initiated foreclosures this year in Massachusetts, a 36.5 percent increase over the first nine months of 2013.

For Worcester County, The Warren Group reported 194 foreclosure petitions for October, up 166 percent from 73 petitions the previous October. Middlesex County also saw an increase of foreclosure petitions, which rose 87 percent to 133 petitions for the month. Petitions are up 31.5 and 30.5 percent for the year in Worcester and Middlesex counties, respectively.

At 423, foreclosure deeds, which represent completed foreclosures, were up 9.3 percent in October and are at their highest monthly level since September 2012. Year-to-date, completed foreclosures are down 6.7 percent compared to the first three quarters of 2013. Completed foreclosures were down 0.15 in Worcester County and 9.5 percent Middlesex County.

"Lenders continue to work through their backlog of long-delinquent mortgages and push the legal work through a pipeline that was clogged for all of 2013," Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, said in a statement. "The experience in Massachusetts is similar to national trends."