Mass. foreclosures rose in national survey

Massachusetts ranked eighth in the nation for foreclosure activity in May, according to a monthly survey issued today by RealtyTrac Inc. of California, an online marketplace for foreclosed properties.

In April, the same survey, titled the US Foreclosure Market Report, found Massachusetts in 10th place.

By RealtyTrac's definition, foreclosure filings include default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions.

Nationwide in May, there were foreclosure filings reported on 261,255 properties during the month, a 7 percent increase from the previous month and a 48 percent increase from May 2007, RealtyTrac said, and the report also shows that one in every 483 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month, the highest monthly foreclosure rate since RealtyTrac began issuing the report in January 2005.

Nevada posted the highest state foreclosure rate with one in every 118 households receiving a foreclosure filing in May, RealtyTrac said; the comparable number for Massachusetts was one foreclosure filing for every 406 households.

According to RealtyTrac, there were 6,676 foreclosure filings in the Bay State during May, a 33 percent jump from April, and a 55 percent increase from May 2007.

Commenting on the national survey results for May in a statement, RealtyTrac chief executive James J. Saccacio: "May was the third straight month where we’ve seen a month-to-month increase in foreclosure activity and the 29th straight month we’ve seen a year-over-year increase. The nationwide rate of increase for default notices and foreclosure auction notices slowed in May, with default notices up just 1 percent from the previous month and auction notices down 3 percent from the previous month. However, bank repossessions continued to surge in May, posting a double-digit percentage increase from the previous month and more than twice the number reported in May 2007, which pushed the total inventory of bank-owned REOs in our database to more than 700,000.”

REO stands for "REO" properties, which have been foreclosed and repurchased by a bank, RealtyTrac said.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)