End of June statistics

at the end of each month we measure how that month's recording statistics compared to those of the same month one year earlier. Perhaps the only good news for June is that the number of deeds recorded is up by 13% district-wide. While that's certainly not evidence of a recovery, it at least means that home sales aren't worsening. Other document categories paint a bleaker picture. The number of mortgages recorded was down 31% which corroborates anecdotal reports that it is exceedingly difficult for anyone to finalize a new mortgage these days. Foreclosure deed recordings are up, as well. In Lowell, they grew from 19 in June 2009 to 29 in June 2010, a 53% jump. That increase was nothing compared to the rate of foreclosure deed recordings for the nine district towns which rose from 5 to 31. I won't even report what percentage increase that is; the number is too frightening.

The overall number of documents recorded was down slightly, falling 5% from 5855 to 5540. For the first six months of 2009, we recorded 31,916 documents while for the same period of 2010, we only recorded 28,322, a drop of 11%. If we project the first six month out over the entire year, it would leave us with only 56,644 documents for 2010, a 13% decrease from the 64,924 actually recorded in 2009.