Big jump in foreclosures

Many of the indicators in real estate are trending positive and so the recovery continues to plod along.  One negative sign, however, is an uptick in the number of new foreclosures.  During the first three weeks of January last year, there were 10 orders of notice recorded (an order of notice signals a new foreclosure); for the same three weeks this year there have been 56.

Here's how the 56 orders of notice recorded since January 1, 2013 breakdown by town:

Billerica - 7
Chelmsford - 2
Dracut - 9
Dunstable - 1
Lowell - 26
Tewksbury - 4
Tyngsborough - 3
Westford - 2
Wilmington - 2

It's been my theory that while these are new foreclosures, they are not of new mortgages.  To test that idea, I at the year of origin of the first thirty mortgages that had corresponding orders of notice recorded this month.  Here's the breakdown of that:

2002 - 2 mortgages
2003 - 3 mortgages
2004 - 1
2005 - 4
2006 - 6
2007 - 7
2008 - 4
2009 - 2
2010 - 0
2011 - 1
2012 - 0

So yes,