Looking at Recent Foreclosures

There was a big drop in foreclosure deeds recorded in the first half of 2019 compared to the same period last year. From January through June of 2018, the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds recorded 133 foreclosure deeds; for the same six months this year, just 36 were recorded. That's a drop of 73 percent.

Most of the foreclosures this year have been clustered in three communities: Lowell had 15 while Chelmsford and Billerica had 7 each. Other towns with foreclosures included Dracut with 4 and Tewksbury, Tyngsborough and Wilmington with one each.

The bulk of the mortgages being foreclosed originated during the housing bubble. Ten of the 36 foreclosures were of mortgages recorded in 2005. Here's a list of the past twenty years with the number of mortgages from that year that have been foreclosed thus far in 2019:

• 1999 - 1
• 2000 - 0
• 2001 - 0
• 2002 - 1
• 2003 - 1
• 2004 - 3
• 2005 - 10
• 2006 - 5
• 2007 - 4
• 2008 - 2
• 2009 - 3
• 2010 - 0
• 2011 - 0
• 2012 - 0
• 2013 - 1
• 2014 - 3
• 2015 - 1
• 2016 - 1
• 2017 - 0
• 2018 - 0