Petitions, the first phase of a foreclosure process, rose in number to 2,581 in March, a 21.6 percent increase from February, according to data released yesterday by Warren Group, a Boston company that tracks local real estate.
Foreclosure deeds, filed when a homeowner officially loses title to a property, surged to 1,389 in March — 51.4 percent more than in February and the highest number for any month in more than a year.
The rise in foreclosures compounds existing problems for neighborhoods plagued by abandoned and neglected properties. But how the swelling numbers affect the housing market, which has been boosted recently by growth in sales and prices, is unclear.
If more bank-owned homes flood the market, they might depress sales and hurt consumer confidence, said Barry Bluestone, dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. But, he noted, foreclosure deeds are a lagging economic indicator, reflecting financial problems that started months if not years ago.
“The sharp rise in deeds reflects many people who have been in trouble for a long time and have lost their homes,’’ he said. “The deeds data does not portend what will happen in the future.’’
Paul Willen, a senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said that even if it’s too late for many struggling homeowners, the housing market in Massachusetts has gained momentum.
“I expect house prices to grow roughly at the rate of inflation or more over the next few years,’’ Willen said. “Even if you believe house prices were overvalued, we’ve seen a big correction.’’
In 2007, Massachusetts homeowners started to lose properties in increasing numbers as the subprime mortgage market began to collapse. The number of foreclosure deeds peaked in 2008 and started to fall last year, according to Warren Group. The number climbed to 3,447 in the first quarter of 2010, a 24.6 percent increase from the first quarter of last year.
Cambridge lawyer Paul Collier said the new data represent a “new wave’’ of foreclosures, prompted by high unemployment and the failure of government programs to ease financial pressures for homeowners who are at risk.
Many of the newest foreclosures, he said, are related to subprime mortgages signed in 2006 and 2007. He blamed lenders for not helping homeowners, despite an array of government incentives to encourage them to do so.
“Nobody is modifying these people’s mortgages, ’’ said Collier, who represents homeowners fighting foreclosure. “It is purely a rush to continue to foreclose on the homes of people in economic stress.’’
The number of foreclosure petitions filed in March represented the most since July, according to Warren Group. Still, petitions to foreclose in the first quarter numbered 6,577, a slight decrease from 6,636 in the last quarter of 2009.
An increasing number of homeowners in wealthier communities also are having difficulty paying their mortgages, according to Warren Group’s data. More homeowners in Belmont, Cambridge, Sudbury, Weston, and Winchester received foreclosure petitions in the first quarter of this year, compared with a year earlier, the data show.
In contrast, the number of petitions in communities most affected by foreclosures — including Roxbury, Lynn, and Springfield — is starting to ebb.
Steve Meacham, a community organizer with City Life/Vida Urbana, a Jamaica Plain-based housing activist group, said more suburban homeowners are showing up at community meetings, seeking assistance.
“The foreclosure crisis was never solved,’’ he said.
Whatever the implications, the latest statistics are clearly bad. Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, said the data are a reminder the housing rebound will probably be slow-going.
“It does suggest that any kind of recovery is going to be sluggish and may falter,’’ he said.
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