Lowell Deeds

www.boston.com just put up a Warren Group report that the number of foreclosure deeds recorded in Massachusetts for the first seven months of 2008 exceeds the total number of foreclosures recorded for all of 2007. I’ve made a similar comparison for the Middlesex North District (using statistics through the end of August) and found the following:

The number of foreclosure deeds recorded for the entire Middlesex North District for the period of Jan 1 through Aug 31 of 2008 (427) was 47% higher than the number recorded for the same period in 2007 (290). The individual towns in the district also saw significant increases. Except for Chelmsford (an 11% increase from 18 to 20) and Dracut (a 28% increase from 39 to 50), the other communities all had increases of 47% or more (because of the small number of transactions, Carlisle and Dunstable were not included in this analysis). Lowell had a 47% rise, from 177 to 261; Tyngsborough had a 50% increase, from 8 to 12; Dracut (24 to 40), Westford (6 to 10) and Wilmington (9 to 15) all saw increases of 67%.

If there’s any good news it’s that the number of foreclosures being recorded from month-to-month in 2008 seems to have peaked in May. Here are the monthly totals: Jan - 39; Feb - 36; Mar - 57; Apr - 67; May - 75; Jun - 54; Jul - 52; Aug - 47.