Lowell Deeds

The fight over net neutrality is heating up…and all Internet users have a big stake in the outcome…What? You talking to me? I don’t even know what net neutrality is (that’s my alter ego). Net neutrality is when telecommunication giants such as Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T and Verzion provide “all” Internet information at equal speed and quality. Isn’t that what’s happening now? Yes, it is what’s happening now, but… The telecos…What’s a teleco? telecommunication company…As I was saying, the telecos are pouring billions of dollars into fiber-optic cables, which they refer to as “the pipes”. These companies feel that since they own the “pipes” they should be able to charge higher amounts to provide faster and better quality delivery. I don’t get it (Hey, I never said my alter ego was smart)….Here’s an example…If Google wants to provide a video for you to download, the telcos believe Google should pay them a premium for using the extra bandwidth needed to deliver quality video at a fast speed…”through their pipes”. Non-neutrality in effect gives companies the “right” to slow down or in some cases block access to sites that don’t pay them. The telcos argue this will allow them to recoup some of their capital outlay (for the fiber-optic cable) and provide money that can be invested in future development of the Internet… When is all this going to take place? The battle is being fought right now…Last Wednesday the Senate Commerce Committee defeated an amendment that would have guaranteed net neutrality. The vote was 11 opposed to
11 in favor…a definite sign of how divisive this issue is. You know, I think I’ll keep an eye on this. You should in fact all surfers should be following this.

It’s Moscow over Tokyo…for the questionable distinction of being the most expense city in the world. Tokyo, last year’s winner dropped to third place in the world’s “I can’t afford to live here anymore” category. Seoul, South Korea was second to Moscow. No, you’re not confused, I am talking about the capital of Russia…yes, the same place that has an average January temperature of 16 degrees and average July temperature of 63 degrees. If you think the cost of housing in Massachusetts is high listen to this… according to Associated Press the cost of homes doubled in Moscow “last year”. Moscow has a population of 11.2 million people and has more billionaires than any other city in the world. New York was the only American city to even place in the top ten. Los Angeles and San Francisco were the other two big US money cities. In case you’re wondering, our Boston didn’t even make the top fifty…so the next time you pay $30.00 bucks for parking to see the Red Sox, just think… if you were in Moscow you would probably be shelling out $60.00 or 1,200 rubles.

One of the hurdles facing electronic recording is to integrate walk-in customers with documents received electronically. When there’s a human being with documents to record standing across the counter from you, it’s easy to put off processing an electronic recording that’s just arrived on your computer. But documents submitted electronically must be recorded in sequence with walk-in customers. In other parts of the country, this is handled with an electronic queue management system. When a walk-in customer first gets in line, he must enter some information about this transaction into a central computer workstation. That computer then assigns him a sequential number much as you would obtain at the deli counter. If an electronic recording arrives, it gets the next number and would be recorded next. I still haven’t figured out how this would work with the multiple recording station setup we use and I have a lot of other questions about it before we even think of implementing it, but I’m now convinced that this is the next step to expanding our electronic recording operation.

Today’s Globe reports that both the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and The Warren Group report that sale of homes and condominiums were down considerably during the month of May when compared to the same time last year. Our statistics readily support this assertion. Instead of looking at just the month of May, I compared the total number of deeds recorded during the second quarter of 2006 with the same period of 2005. I then made the same comparison for just condominium deeds (which are also included in the first set). Here’s what the records show: In the 2nd Qtr of 2005, a total of 2145 deeds were recorded while in 2nd Qtr 2006, just 1712 were recorded, a decrease of 20% (and as regular blog readers know, you might want to double check my math). These figures are for the entire 10 town registry district. For the city of Lowell alone, in 2nd Qtr 2005, 790 deeds were recorded while just 563 were recorded in 2nd Qtr 2006, a 29% reduction. The figures for condominiums were slightly worse. For the entire district, 570 condominium deeds were recorded in the 2nd Qtr 2005 while only 411 were recorded in 2nd Qtr 2006, a 28% decrease. In Lowell, 255 condominium deeds were recorded in 2nd Qtr 2005 with 171 recorded in 2nd Qtr 2006, a 31% reduction. Next Monday (July 3) we’ll issue a similar report for the month of June, the full 2nd Qtr, and the first half of the year, so check back then.

The Registers of Deeds Association is contemplating some amendments to the Deed Indexing Standards regarding condominiums. One such amendment deals with an interpretation of MGL c. 183A, s.9 which requires the first deed of each condominium unit to be accompanied by a floor plan of that unit and of “the immediately adjacent units.” A literal interpretation would mean providing the complete floor plans of the adjacent units. And what of the units above and below the subject unite? Are they considered to be “adjacent”? The Registers Association concluded that we will deem this statute complied with if the unit plan attached to the deed simply identifies the location and unit number of the units adjacent to the subject unit (although the full floor plan of the subject unit is still required). In addition, a new indexing standard will require that all Master Deeds be accompanied by a site plan showing where the building containing the condominium units sits on the lot. While most Master Deeds are accompanied by such a plan already, it is not universal and now it will be required. These standards will go into effect probably on January 1, 2007.

Last month we reported on the dramatic upsurge in the number of foreclosure filings (20 in May 2005 to 78 in May 2006). New foreclosures continue to be recorded everyday, at a far greater pace than in 2005 but not at the rocket-propelled increases of this May. For the period June 1 to Jun 23, 2005, we recorded 20 new foreclosures (i.e., orders of notice) here at Middlesex North. For this same period in 2006 we have recorded 31, a 55% increase (original post erroneously stated this was 155% but a kind commenter pointed out the sloppy error - thanks). The number of foreclosure deeds (recorded after the foreclosure sale has actually taken place) is up also, from 6 in June 2005 to 13 thus far in June 2006. While foreclosure-related filings are way up, everything else is down. The total number of documents we recorded in the June 1 -23 period for 2006 (4962) is down 16% from the same period in 2005 (5885), down 26% from 2004 (6771) and down a whopping 51% (10211) from 2003.

When Version 3.0 of the Deed Indexing Standards for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts went into effect on January 1, 2006, one of the most controversial areas involved Standard 7-8 (“Multifunctional Documents”) which said

A document that accomplishes more than one function shall be treated as a multiple document. A separate recording fee will be charged and index entry made for each separate function accomplished by the document. For example, a single assignment that assigns different mortgages executed by different people on different properties to one assignee is a multifunctional document and would be charged a separate recording fee and have separate index entries made for each mortgage assigned.

In response, the Massachusetts Registers of Deeds Association spent a substantial portion of a recent meeting trying to clarify this particular standard. The standard itself will stay as is, but we’ve come up with a specific list of document combinations that implicate multiple fees. I’m in the process of transforming my notes from the meeting into an appendix to the Indexing Standards that should be completed by early next week. Once it’s done, I’ll mention it on this blog and post it on www.lowelldeeds.com

Friday the Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court made a decision which has significant impact on the state’s affordable housing law, Chp 40B. A group of Andover residents tried to stop the development of a 115 unit affordable project claiming it would have a negative impact on their property values. The suit landed in the state’s highest court where it was determined that a negative impact on value was not a valid reason to stop construction. Chapter 40B is controversial law especially in the state’s suburban communities. The law allows developers to work outside the constrains of local zoning laws provided the development contains a minimum of 20% affordable units. A community becomes exempt from 40B when its affordable stock reaches 10% or the town submits a comprehensive plan to make that minimum. The Andover development in question was a four-story apartment building designed with 25% affordable units. The SJC ruled in favor of the developer on the premise that using neighborhood value impact to stop the project would frustrate the intent of the affordable housing law.

Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, richest man in the world and a college dropout announced his retirement last Friday. Estimates of Gates’ wealth are in the vicinity of $50 billion dollars. In 1980 when IBM was looking for an operating system for its new personal computer Bill Gates and Paul Allen stepped up and produced “DOS”… well, produced is kind of the wrong word…actually Gates and Allen “bought” DOS and retooled it for IBM. As legend goes IBM was not interested in purchasing exclusive rights to the DOS operating system from Gates and Allen. This mistake cost IBM millions/billions. The results of this ill guided business decision made Gates a billionaire. A short time after IBM’s blunder, inexpensive clones of the IBM PC were being mass produced…all running on Microsoft’s version of DOS (MS-DOS). Microsoft rapidly became the worlds leading software provider. In 1983 Paul Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease and resigned from Microsoft…it was at that time Gates took sole control of the monster company, although Allen remained a major financial partner…Microsoft’s real explosion came in 1990 with the release of Windows 3.0…It was Windows software that made Gates the richest man in the world (and Paul Allen the fifth richest). Gates deserves praise for deciding to spend the remainder of his life concentrating on charitable work…He is only 50 years old. His retirement is effective in July of 2008… not bad for a drop out.

Last week I wrote about the imposing number of social security numbers embedded in many of the documents that are recorded here. Yesterday, the Boston Globe published a front page story documenting the widespread use of fake social security numbers by employees of contractors hired by the Commonwealth on various construction projects such as dormitories at UMass Dartmouth and an addition to the House of Correction in Billerica. Some of the social security numbers used were real, only they didn’t belong to the construction workers using them. Either by coincidence or by conscious appropriation, numbers assigned to other US residents (including a young mother from Illinois) were being used by workers in Massachusetts. One of the employees in question had chosen “666-66-6666″ as his social security number. The theme that ran throughout the story, whether stated by the contractor or the government entity spending the money, was “it’s not my job to check that.” We usually think of identity theft as an instance of one person falsely obtaining credit by purporting to be another person. But that’s only one slice of the identity theft pie. This story describes another and presents us with another reason to rid our records of full social security numbers.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill which took place on a sunny summer day 231 years ago. On the evening of June 16, the untrained, untested American troops slipped from Cambridge into Charlestown and fortified Breed’s Hill, a 75 foot high elevation that overlooked Boston. The British, under the command of General William Howe, quickly crossed the harbor, landed in front of the hill and began their advance. The Americans held their fire until the British were close to their position. When the Americans fired, it was so intense that the front of the British line disappeared and the survivors fled. After regrouping, a second advance was made. It too was unsuccessful. With casualties approaching 50% of his force, Howe attacked again. By now, the Americans had run out of ammunition. They fought for a short time and then fled. While the British won the battle, their casualties were devastating. Howe said something like “We cannot afford anymore victories such as this.” When word of this battle finally reached England, it finally became clear that this would be a long and costly war.

This morning I was a guest on the Sunrise program on radio station WUML, 91.5 FM. I spent much of my time explaining that even though most Massachusetts counties were abolished almost ten years ago, there are still county offices such as the sheriff and the register of deeds. In preparing for my segment I did some reading and found some key dates. The first English settlements in what became Middlesex County occurred in 1630. Harvard College was founded in 1639. In 1643, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was divided into four “shires” that were named Middlesex, Suffolk, Essex and Norfolk. In 1649, the first Middlesex County court was established and in 1652, a register of deeds was appointed.

Back on May 30 a front page story in the New York Times identified Phoenix as the identity theft capital of America. One of the causes was the high tech website of the Maricopa County Recorder’s office which had put millions of pages of official records online and many of those records contained social security numbers. When asked what she was going to do about it, the Recorder essentially said there was nothing she could do because there were just too many of them. I’ve been thinking about this article for the past two weeks. We had done some statistical analysis of our records some time ago regarding the presence of social security numbers, so I dug that out. From the sampling we did, we found that 2.6% of the documents recorded here contain social security numbers. While that may not sound like a lot, when applied to the 1.8 million documents recorded since 1980, that gives us 47,000 social security numbers. That’s a lot of identities that could be stolen. So I think the time has come to begin attacking this problem. In the near future we’ll start eradicating all but the last four digits of social security numbers from our records. It seems like an overwhelming job, but it’ll never get done unless we get started.

For more than a year I’ve been working with staff of the Special Education Department at the Greater Lowell Technical High School on the development of a scanning curriculum and work/study opportunities for their students. Our experience in scanning more than 10 million pages of land records here at the registry of deeds gives us some insight into this process. One of our major points is that the scanning itself (feeding a paper through a machine) is only a small part of the operation. More burdensome are all the other tasks such as removing staples, unfolding pages and keeping them in order that are all pre-conditions to the actual scanning. Today we had a visit by a group of staff and students from two Boston schools, Madison Park Technical High School and Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. We demonstrated the various scanner we use, discussed all the steps that go into a large scale scanning project and invited the students to do some scanning for us. With all the documents and paper records that should be scanned, creating partnerships with Special Education Departments of local high schools provides a tremendous opportunity for the students to obtain valuable work and experience and for government offices to have valuable records scanned at an affordable cost.

Dear Veteran:

The Department of Veterans Affairs has recently learned that an employee took home electronic data from the VA, which he was not authorized to do . . . The employee’s home was burglarized and this data was stolen. The data contained identifying information including names, soical security numbers, and dates of birth for up to 26.5 million veterans . . . As a result of this incident, information identifiable with you was potentially exposed to others.

And so began the letter that I recently received from the VA. It doesn’t concern me all that much. The fraud alert that I placed on my credit reports is still active. I activated that alert when the Boston Globe used computer printouts of my (and 250,000 other) credit card numbers to wrap issues of the Sunday Globe which were then delivered to street corners throughout the city of Worcester. Our government (both state and federal) must get serious about protecting us from accidental disclosure of this kind of information. The problem is that there’s such a huge amount of money to be made from the rapid allowance of new credit, that lobbyists kill every measure that would provide we consumers with any kind of protection.

Today’s Globe reports that the John F Kennedy Presidential Library will begin scanning more than 48 million pages of documents in its possession with the ultimate goal of making them available on the internet. Hordes of photos and video will also be digitized. This is great news, of course, and I don’t want to impose a negative spin on such a positive event, but what took them so long? This is 2006 and any repository of records that is not already converting its holdings to digital images is guilty of intellectual malpractice. Of course, one of the partners in this endeavor is the Massachusetts digital storage giant EMC. That company’s led by Joe Tucci, who captained the S.S. Wang when it floundered on the rocks of bankruptcy a decade ago. If the same philosophy that made Wang such a tough company to deal with (and we’re speaking of our own very painful experience here) is brought to this project, we shouldn’t hold our collective breath waiting for this job to be completed.

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the Norfolk Registry of Deeds in Dedham. First I would like to thank Register Bill O’Donnell and the MIS Director Chuck Phelan for their hospitality. The purpose of my visit was to see Norfolk’s Minolta PS7000 camera in action. This camera photographs record books and converts the pages to electronic images. Norfolk uses the camera to digitize books that are the standard 8.5″X11″ size. I was very impressed with the images produced by the camera. They were clear and clean. Operating the PS7000 was a breeze. It is activated using a foot pedal. The pedal frees the operator’s hands to turn pages while shooting with his foot. It is great system. We ordered the PS7000 last week and are hoping for delivery early next week. We plan on using it to fix some of our poor quality “existing” images. Most of these are low numbered “bound” books. We don’t want to disassemble these books to re-scan, so this machine will work perfectly. The PS7000 has a cradle capable of holding very large books…and we have plenty of them. Correcting these images is a long-term project but it is a very important one.

Google has rolled out a test version of Google Spreadsheets which seems to be aimed at Microsoft Excel. Google takes the format and formulas familiar to Excel users and allows you to put them in a secure location online so you can access them from anywhere. And anyone you permit can access and contribute information. A story in today’s New York Times explains some of the implications of this and the Google Labs site gives you a simple demo of this service. This is very exciting (well, exciting for someone working at a registry of deeds). I’ve asked to be “invited” to try out the beta version. If I’m selected, I’ll provide an unbiased and practical review.

Here are some Middlesex North Statistics coming right at you…

Let’s start by comparing May 2006 to May 2005…

Total Doc’s: May 2006- 6,593… May 2005- 7,249… this is a 9% decrease
Total Deeds: May 2006- 638… May 2005- 739… this is a 15% decrease
Total Mortgages: May 2006- 1,901… May 2005- 2,194… this is a decrease of 15%

By the end of May 2006 “30,466″ documents had been recorded in the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds…at the end May 2005 we had recorded “33,801″ documents… this is a decrease of 10%.

So far in 2006 we have averaged 292 document recordings a day…

On the last “business” day in May (May 31) we recorded 564…on the last “Friday” (May 26) we recorded 446.

We’ve already written about the huge increase in foreclosures during the past few months, particularly during May. Now we’ve analyzed the 33 foreclosures that were commenced on property in the city of Lowell in May. One-third of them involved mortgages that were used to purchase the property. Ten of these eleven purchases also had second mortgages recorded at the same time. Only one of the eleven mortgages had any equity in the property. With nine of them, the first and second mortgages equaled exactly the purchase price meaning that the buyer put no money down on the purchase. All but one of the lenders involved were from outside the area with Option One leading the way with six of the 33, followed by Ameriquest with 3 and WMC Mortgage with 3. Two of these purchases occurred in 2003, four in 2004 and five in 2005.

The other 22 foreclosures (two-thirds of the total) were refinances on properties that were owned for an average of 4.7 years between the time title was acquired and the time the mortgage being foreclosed was recorded. Of the 22, nine have owned the property for less than seven years, nine more owned the property for more than four but less than seven years, and three owned for more than seven. These homeowners had an average of four mortgages since they purchased the property, meaning that they had refinanced more than once. One had eight different mortgages, another had six, and five homeowners had five different mortgages. Sixteen of the 22 original purchases seemed to be “arms length” transactions in which the homeowner purchased for something close to fair market value. Of these sixteen, the amount owed on the mortgage being foreclosed was on average $92,000 more than was paid for the property in the first place.

These are the facts. We’ll contribute some analysis in future posts.