March statistics to-date show RE slow down

I usually wait until the end of the month to compare recording statistics with those from a year ago, but with turbulent times in the economy and in real estate in particular, I thought today would present a good opportunity for a preview of coming attractions. Unfortunately, it doesn't look good.

When we compare recordings from March 1 to March 28 for 2009 and 2010, we find that in 2009, the total number of documents recorded was 5175 while in 2010 it dropped to 3841. The number of deeds and mortgages dropped, as well, from 373 to 312 for deeds and from 1212 to 707 for mortgages. The only thing that's up are documents related to foreclosures. The number of orders of notice rose from 40 in 2009 to 95 in 2010 and the number of foreclosure deeds jumped from 31 in 2009 to 50 in 2010.

Check back on Thursday for the full month's stats. Hopefully, there'll be a surge in deeds and mortgages over the next three days to even out these numbers a bit.