Foreclosure Rate Soaring - NOT

Saturday’s Boston Globe had a prominent front page story that proclaimed the number of foreclosures were up dramatically this year when compared to 2004. A follow-up story in Sunday’s Northwest Weekly section of the Globe focused specifically on Middlesex County were foreclosures were up 34%. These stories both came as quite a surprise to me since I’ve been tracking these things very closely. When I got to work on Monday we looked up the statistics and, for the Northern Middlesex District at least, the number of foreclosures was actually down in 2005 compared to the same period in 2004. For example, during the period from January 1, 2004 to June 15, 2004, there were 30 foreclosure deeds recorded in Lowell. For the same period in 2005, only 24 foreclosure deeds were recorded. Another indicator of foreclosure activity is the number of Orders of Notice recorded. (The article did a very good job of explaining the Order of Notice process and pointed out that, while the majority of such filings do not ultimately result in foreclosure, they are an indicator of a distressed situation for the home owner). Well in our 5.5 month period of 2004, we recorded 180 Orders of Notice. For the same period in 2005, we only recorded 153. While our statistics don’t corroborate the Globe articles, common sense – or at least my version of it – certainly does. With soaring home prices, interest only adjustable rate mortgages, and an economy that’s never really moved past the “just puttering along” stage, it’s inevitable that the incidence of foreclosure will move up rapidly – just not quite yet.