Home foreclosures double in May
ForeclosuresMass.com said today that May foreclosure filings against Massachusetts homeowners have more than doubled, a trend that is accelerating as the housing market slows and mortgage rates increase.
ForeclosuresMass.com, which tracks monthly filings by financial institutions against homeowners in the state's Land Court, said there were 1,613 filings last month, compared with 788 in May 2005.
"That's over 50 a day every day of the month," said Derek Beckwith, spokesman.
The biggest increases occurred in Barnstable County on Cape Cod, 96 in May 2006, up from 32 in May 2005; Suffolk County, 171, up from 71; and Bristol County, 143, up from 64.
Jeremy Shapiro, ForeclosuresMass.com's president, said adjustable-rate mortgages have caused many homeowners' monthly mortgage payments to rise to levels that they can no longer afford.
"We expected foreclosure rates to increase again this year, but the levels we are tracking outdistance our earlier predictions," Shapiro said. "We may be witnessing a 'perfect storm' scenario where a flat real estate market, higher interest rates, rising energy costs and specialty loans are causing significant difficulty for thousands of Massachusetts property owners," he said.
Over the past year, ending May 31, there were 13,565 filings in Land Court, a 40 percent over the 9,688 filings for the year ending May 31, 2005, the firm said. The highest-recorded foreclosures in Land court were 17,000 In 1991.
Dennis, Sandwich, Bridgewater, Fitchburg, and Gloucester have been hit particularly hard, the firm said.
(By Kimberly Blanton, Globe staff)
