Martin Luther King Day reminder

Next Monday, January 16, 2018, is Martin Luther King Day which is a state and federal holiday. The Middlesex North Registry of Deeds will be closed that day, and will reopen on Tuesday, January 17, 2018, at 8:30 a.m.

2017 Recording Statistics for Lowell

Last week I wrote a blog post with recording statistics for the entire Middlesex North Registry of Deeds district for all of 2017 and for just the month of December. Here's the equivalent information just for the city of Lowell, comparing the numbers for 2017 to those from 2016:

Deeds: in 2017, 2,018 were recorded v 2,086 in 2016, a 3% decline

Mortgages: in 2017, 2,512 were recorded v 2,768 in 2016, a 9% decline

Foreclosure Deeds: in 2017, 100 were recorded v 122 in 2016, a 18% decline

Orders of Notice: in 2017, 146 were recorded v 188 in 2016, a 22% decline

Total Docs: in 2017, 13,878 documents were recorded v 15,143 in 2016, a 8% decline

Here are the numbers for December 2017 compared to December 2016:

Deeds: in Dec 2017, 154 v 174 in Dec 2016, a 11% decline

Mortgages: in Dec 2017, 194 v 248 in Dec 2016, a 22% decline

Foreclosure Deeds: in Dec 2017, 5 v 4 in Dec 2016, a 25% increase

Orders of Notice: in Dec 2017, 17 v 12 in Dec 2016, a 42% increase

Total Docs: in Dec 2017, 1,074 v 1,478 in Dec 2016, a 27% decline

Median Prices in 2017

All deeds recorded at the registry of deeds must state the amount of consideration paid, so the registry has a record of every sale made for the towns in the registry district. However, the registry is concerned with who owns the land, not what is built upon it or its use (in the zoning sense of the word). Consequently, registry records do not differentiate between residential, commercial, industrial or other uses. That said, performing statistical analysis on the consideration of deeds recorded can provide some insight into real estate trends.

Here are the median prices of deeds recorded in 2017 for the ten communities in the Middlesex North District. To eliminate outliers, like related-party transfers or the sale of a multi-million dollar industrial building, the query for each community considers only those deeds with consideration greater than $60,000 and less than $1,200,000.

Town - Median Price - No. of Deeds
Billerica - $400,000 - 579
Carlisle - $730,000 -    74
Chelmsford - $361,500 - 694
Dracut - $290,000 - 633
Dunstable - $489,000 - 67
Lowell - $250,000 - 1475
Tewksbury - $369,950 - 552
Tyngsboro - $339,900 - 225
Westford - $460,000 - 399
Wilmington - $460,000 - 355

Registry of Deeds to open at 10am on Friday

Just got word via Trial Court Twitter account that all courthouses in Middlesex County will open at 10am tomorrow, Friday, January 5, 2017.

That means the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds will also open at 10am.

Here's the full text of the Trial Court tweet:

Courts in the following counties will have a delayed opening of 10 a.m. on Friday, January 5: Bristol, Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth & Worcester. Courts in all other counties will be open at their usual time.

Registry of Deeds closed Thursday Jan 4, 2018

Just got word that the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds will be closed all day tomorrow due to impending blizzard.

Check back here for updates.

UPDATE: Thur, Jan 4, 2017 at 6 a.m.: All courts in Massachusetts are closed today (as are all registries of deeds). The latest forecast calls for more than 12 inches of snow in Greater Lowell, beginning at about 8:30 this morning and continuing throughout the day.
 

Bad Weather and Registry Operations

Forecasters are calling for a blizzard to arrive in eastern Massachusetts sometime late this evening/early tomorrow morning with an expected snowfall of 8 to 12 inches in the Lowell area.

The registry of deeds is a tenant inside the Middlesex Superior Courthouse. When the courthouse closes, the registry closes. So on stormy winter days, the best way to learn whether the registry will be closed (or will have a delayed opening), is to use the public resources of the state's Trial Court system.

These are:

The Trial Court website which will be annotated with any court closing information relatively early in a storm - http://www.mass.gov/courts/

The Trial Court Closings account on Twitter, which is used to tweet-out news of closures - @macourtclosings;

The Trial Court recorded phone message line at 800/222-5178.

Of the three, I have found the Trial Court website to be the most reliably up-to-date.

Also, as soon as I have any news of closings or decisions that would otherwise affect our operations, I will put something on this blog and also on my own Twitter feed, which is @DickHowe.

Recording Statistics for 2017

Here are the number of recordings of major document types at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds in 2017 with 2016 totals included for context:

Deeds: in 2017, 7268 were recorded v 7776 in 2016, a 7% decline

Mortgages: in 2017, 10,647 were recorded v 12,639 in 2016, a 16% decline

Foreclosure Deeds: in 2017, 194 were recorded v 270 in 2016, a 28% decline

Orders of Notice: in 2017, 379 were recorded v 471 in 2016, a 20% decline

Total Docs: in 2017, 59,064 documents were recorded v 65,521 in 2016, a 10% decline

Here are the numbers for December 2017 compared to December 2016:

Deeds: in Dec 2017, 605 v 697 in Dec 2016, a 13% decline

Mortgages: in Dec 2017, 892 v 1145 in Dec 2016, a 22% decline

Foreclosure Deeds: in Dec 2017, 12 v 16 in Dec 2016, a 25% decline

Orders of Notice: in Dec 2017, 47 v 28 in Dec 2016, a 68% increase

Total Docs: in Dec 2017, 4790 v 6125 in Dec 2016, a 22% decline