Foreclosures in Hampden County, Massachusetts were up close to 50% for the first four months of 2010 compared to the same period last year, or 431 foreclosures versus 289 foreclosures in 2009. The situation was even worse when events for April 2010 are viewed in isolation – the month recorded a 160% plus growth.
Initial foreclosure notifications – they’re the first step in what used to be a long process – were also up by 11.8% during the same four month period, and again a great deal more too during April 2010 when they rose 70% from 122 to 207.
So what’s happening in the State of Massachusetts, just when everybody was hoping the situation would improve? The goods news is that it’s not a sign of a deteriorating market, more a case of lenders getting their act sorted and closing in on their backlogs. By way of an example, it now just takes a median 138 days to process a Massachusetts foreclosure, compared to 234 days two years ago.
According to Program Manager at the Western Massachusetts Foreclosure Prevention Centre a secondary reason for prior tardiness was lenders reticence to take on inventory that would not sell – this reticence is diminished now, and at least some of them are following through to complete the process.
The following are further recent statistics for the first four months of 2010:
Springfield foreclosures were up 37%, and 140% for April alone. While first phase petitions were marginally down, they jumped almost 62% during the last month of the period under review.
Hampshire County’s comparables were 121%, 100% and 19%, 19% respectively.
In Franklin County, completed foreclosures rose 38%, and 33% in April. First notifications moved up by 38% for the first four months, but 130% in April alone.
According to Robert Mitchell, Senior Vice President at Hampden Bank responsible for Retail and Mortgage lending in Springfield, his bank has not yet seen a rise in its foreclosures, although it was working closely with customers who were out of work or otherwise batting with their payments. He thought the trend was likely the result on increased activity among larger banks, although he doubted they had the capacity to increase activity much more.
Perhaps the increasing trends are a combination of some banks losing their nerve, while others make hay in the sun before Washington flexes its anti-foreclosure muscles again? What do you think about all this? Is this the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?
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