June was an inhospitable month for Massachusetts homeowners, though Franklin County didn’t fare as badly as some areas of the state.
In Franklin County, there were four foreclosures (up from three the previous year) and 41 up to and including that period so far this year.
Worcester County’s saw the greatest increase among Massachusetts counties that had at least 10 foreclosures in June.
The Warren Group reported there were 470 completed foreclosures in Massachusetts in June — a 15.8 percent spike from the 406 foreclosure deeds filed in June 2015. Through June, there had been 2,872 completed foreclosures in Massachusetts in 2016, up 41.5 percent from the 2,030 at the same point last year.
As of June, there had been 706 completed year-to-date foreclosures in Worcester County in 2016, as opposed to 428 at that point last year, an increase of 65 percent.
The Warren Group also reported foreclosure petitions in Massachusetts increased 13.1 percent in June, marking 28 consecutive months of year-over-year increases in foreclosure starts. That trend is expected to continue through the end of the year.
June 2016 featured 10 petitions in Franklin County, up by one from the previous year. There had been 75 so far this year, a figure also up one from last year.
“Foreclosure starts continued to climb in the first two quarters of 2016, but the rate of increase has slowed,” Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, said in a statement. “Lenders continue to work through a backlog of delinquent mortgages and get foreclosure proceedings started on the most difficult cases. The higher volume of starts that we have been seeing over the past two years is likely to continue for the balance of the year.”
Robert Cohn, owner of Cohn & Company real estate agency in Greenfield, said he could not speak to the Worcester County housing market, but said Franklin County’s foreclosure figures are considerably lower because the financial climate is relatively healthy.
“One great thing about Franklin County is that our pendulum doesn’t swing like it does in Boston or any other metropolitan place, so we’re pretty stable,” he said. “We have affordability.”
Cohn, who has worked in real estate for 44 years, said many people throughout the country buy a home through a mortgage with 97 to 100 percent financing, meaning they typically would not have the money to be homeowners. This, he said, means they might be living paycheck to paycheck and a sudden but inevitable necessary house repair could prove devastating.
“Most people don’t earn enough money. We’re losing our entire middle class,” Cohn said, citing a lack of quality jobs and good wages. “And we don’t seem to be doing anything about it. When your strongest growth is in social services, that should tell you something.”
There were 6,616 petitions filed in Massachusetts through June this year. This represents a 24.4 percent spike from last year’s 5,316. June also marked the fifth consecutive month with more than 1,000 foreclosure starts, a streak The Warren Group reports hasn’t happened since 2012.
“It’s just a factor of lenders processing their delinquent mortgages,” Warren said in a podcast released with the group’s report Tuesday. “One thousand in a month is a lot but in 2007 and 2008 we were seeing over 3,000 in a month. Eventually we will hit the high water mark and the number will recede.”
You can reach Domenic Poli at:
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