Mid-month statistics

Now that August is half over, it's time to look at our mid-month statistics.  When the first 15 days of August 2012 are compared to the first 15 days of August 2011, here's what we see:

Deeds were up 11%, rising from 232 to 257.

Mortgages were up 78%, rising from 392 to 699.

Foreclosure deeds were down 35%, dropping from 17 to 11.

Orders of Notice were up 68%, rising from 37 to 62.

As good as the uptick in mortgages is, the order of notice increase is worrisome.  Many are speculating that it's just a backlog of bad mortgages being cleaned up with the catalyst being the Supreme Judicial Court's decision in the Eaton case.  Still, 62 new foreclosures is a lot.  Here's how they are distributed among the towns in the district:

Billerica - 5
Chelmsford - 4
Dracut - 8
Dunstable - 2
Lowell - 34
Tewksbury - 4
Tyngsborough - 3
Westford - 1
Wilmington 1
multiple towns - 1