slides: Research Bureau Releases 2017 Foreclosure in Worcester Report

Thursday, October 05, 2017

GoLocalWorcester News Team

The Research Bureau has released their latest report on foreclosure in the City of Worcester.

READ THE REPORT IN THE SLIDESHOW BELOW

“Foreclosures can have a devastating effect on individuals and families, but properties slated for foreclosure, experiencing significant disinvestment and a lack of maintenance, also “present a danger to the safety and welfare of public safety officers, the public, occupants, abutters and neighborhoods and...constitute a public nuisance” (Worcester’s Vacant and Foreclosing Property Ordinance),” says the Research Bureau in its report.

The report shows that the number of petitions to foreclose increased 17% in 2016 following increases of 21% in 2014 and 80% in 2015.

The report shows that 234 petitions to foreclose have been filed in the first six months of 2017. The report predicts that if that trend continues, it will result in a decrease from the 523 petitions filed in 2016.

Fixing Foreclosures

The report outlines an approach to connect key partners in order to ensure that the process is clear, considered, and compassionate to all those affected.

“A foreclosure working group, composed of such institutions and organizations as the City of Worcester, the Attorney General’s Office, the HCCM, the REALTOR® Association of Central Massachusetts (RACM), the Massachusetts Bankers Association (MBA), and the Cooperative Credit Union Association (CCUA) should lay out a framework for the foreclosure process in Worcester,” the report says.

The report continues, “the framework should include clear steps to minimize the possibility of foreclosure, but also mitigate the negative impacts of those foreclosures that must occur.”

The Research Bureau says that if their proposed process is followed, there “it should allow families facing foreclosure to work with financial institutions and other partners to limit the short- and long-term impact of foreclosure on their financial security. It should also allow financial institutions to avoid costly expenditures in the effort to recoup at least some portion of their investment in a failed mortgage situation.”