Lowell Deeds

Back in January we noticed that many of the foreclosure deeds being recorded had been signed many months before they were brought to the Registry of Deeds. We never could figure out the cause of the delay. Recently, we examined all foreclosure deeds for Lowell recorded between January 1, 2009 and June 30, 2009 to measure the date intervals between the various events in the foreclosure process. There were 121 foreclosures in this group. Because a handful seemed to have extremely long time intervals, I chose to calculate the median (the middle number of the group with half the numbers greater and half less) rather than the average. Here is what we found:

From the recording of the order of notice to the foreclosure auction: 54 days.
From the foreclosure auction to the signing of the foreclosure deed: 23 days.
From the foreclosure auction to the recording of the foreclosure deed: 66 days.
From the recording of the order of notice to the recording of the foreclosure deed: 148 days.

These numbers should provide some context when our readers look at the foreclosure statistics we publish from time to time.