First, the good news.
The number of homes sold at foreclosure auction dropped in February in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Now, the bad news.
The number of homes that entered the legal foreclosure process went up last month, continuing a streak of four consecutive months of rising foreclosure petitions in Massachusetts. In New Hampshire, the number of homes entering the foreclosure process remained steadily high.
"While it's positive that fewer homes were lost to foreclosure in February, the number of foreclosures initiated by lenders month to month has been steadily increasing since last November," said Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, which released the numbers yesterday. "In addition, the pace of foreclosures has remained fairly steady over the last six months, despite the fact that several large lending institutions have introduced temporary moratoriums on foreclosures in recent months."
New Hampshire is seeing a similar trend, said Jane Law, director of communications for the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority.
The number of actual foreclosure auctions dropped in February, she said, due in large part to foreclosure moratoriums by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and several other large lending institutions.
Once those moratoriums expire, many experts fear foreclosures will spike again.
Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New England in general seem to be doing a lot better than other parts of the country. Nationwide, foreclosure filings in February jumped nearly 6 percent from January. California led the nation with 80,775 foreclosure filings, followed by Florida with 46,391, Arizona with 18,199 and Nevada with 15,783.
By contrast, Massachusetts had just 2,940 and New Hampshire 739.
Michael Ecker, chief lending officer at RiverBank in North Andover, said in a recent interview that "New England has been spared" the brunt of the foreclosure crisis.
"There are parts of the country where default rates are very high," he said. "Luckily, we're not in one of those areas."
But, he admitted, for someone losing a home to foreclosure, statistics don't really matter.
At the office of Neighbor Works of Greater Manchester, N.H., Executive Director Kellie Coffey got tired of answering the same questions about mortgages from roughly 20 callers a day. Now, she holds a free, weekly workshop on Tuesday nights to answer homeowners' questions about their mortgages and options to foreclosure. Her last few sessions have been well attended.
Even though the numbers provided by The Warren Group and New Hampshire may show a one-month bright spot, local auctioneers are still seeing a high volume of auctions.
Michael Harkins of Harkins Real Estate and Auctioneers in Andover, said he's never been busier, and is doing a lot of work in New Hampshire.
"I have noticed that some of the bigger auctioneers are doing less volume, but I'm doing more," Harkins said.
He said as the number of foreclosures remains high, the value of properties continues dropping. He recently handled a small house in Lowell that had a $152,000 mortgage on it. The bank bought it at auction for $60,000 and is now selling it for $49,900.
"They took a $100,000 loss," Harkins said.
Nationwide, home prices fell an average 19 percent in January in 20 major urban markets, according to a survey released yesterday.
In the Boston-area market, prices fell by 7.3 percent. But that's a lot better than other markets, too.
In Las Vegas, home prices plummeted 32.5 percent. In Phoenix, the biggest loser, prices fell more than 35 percent.
Charts
Homes sold at auction in Merrimack Valley cities and towns, Feb. 2008 vs. Feb. 2009
City/townFeb. 2008Feb. 2009
Andover11
Haverhill1416
North Andover32
Methuen56
Lawrence3120
State860823
Statewide
All of 2007All of 2008
7,65312,430
Southern New Hampshire
Homes sold at auction in Rockingham County
Jan. 2009Feb. 2009
5139
Rockingham County
20072008
472805
New Hampshire statewide
20072008
2,0713,563
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