2014 E-Recording Recap

The number of documents recorded electronically dropped in 2014 compared to 2013, but that was a function of the drop in overall recording numbers – they were down 20% overall – since the percentage of documents recorded electronically held steady at 38%.  Having started electronic recording in 2005, we now have ten years of experience with the technology.  Here is how it has grown over time, showing the year, the number of documents recorded electronically, and the percentage of all document recordings the e-file total constitutes:

2005 – 1057 – 1%
2006 – 1871 – 3%
2007 – 3491 – 5%
2008 – 3956 – 7%
2009 – 8168 – 12%
2010 – 9013 – 14%
2011 – 14736 – 30%
2012 – 24210 – 34%
2013 – 25251 – 38%
2014 – 20306 – 38%

Of the 20,306 documents recorded electronically last year, 2169 (11%) were deeds, 5260 (26%) were mortgages, 4729 (23%) were discharges, and 8146 (40%) were “other.”  For documents recorded by all means – electronic, by mail, and walk in - the percentage breakdown changes.  Of the 53584 documents recorded last year, 12% were deeds, 17% were mortgages, 19% were discharges and 52% were “other.”  This suggests that when the refinancing market rebounds the percentage of documents recorded electronically will increase significantly since mortgages and mortgage discharges are more likely than most other documents to be recorded electronically.

The busiest days for electronic recording in 2014 were September 30 (182 documents), May 30 (171 documents) and June 30 (169 documents) came in by that method.  The largest percentage of electronically recorded documents (58%) came in on June 4, October 3 and November 5.  Electronic recordings accounted for 50% or more of daily recordings on 25 of the 247 recording days in 2014.