Foreclosures on the increase

Foreclosures are up both here in Massachusetts (according to this Boston Globe story) and across the nation (according to the New York Times). Three weeks ago, we made similar findings for the month of October. Our statistics for October showed that in Lowell, Foreclosure Deeds were up 21% rising from 24 in 2008 to 29 in 2009. Orders of Notice were up 17%, rising from 47 in 2008 to 55 in 2009.

For the nine towns in the district for the same time periods we found that Foreclosure Deeds were up 18%, rising from 17 in 2008 to 20 in 2009. The most startling statistic was for Orders of Notice in the nine towns which rose 158%, from 24 in 2008 to 62 in 2009.

A snapshot of November’s statistics to-date paint a grim picture. While the number of foreclosure deeds recorded for the period of November 1 to November 20, 2009 were down slightly when compared to the same period last November (34 in 2008 down to 22 in 2009), the number of Orders of Notice has exploded. For the entire district, in the first three weeks of November of 2008, there were 35 orders of Notice recorded. For the same three weeks this year, the number is up to 77. This trend is consistent in Lowell and in the towns, rising from 22 to 52 in Lowell and from 13 to 25 in the nine towns.