Despite a nationwide drop in foreclosures, Massachusetts’ rate continues double-digit growth, according to data from The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. Foreclosure attorneys blame the government, the government blames the banks and the banks blame mortgage companies – and while there’s no resolution on who is responsible, there may soon be a remedy for some of the titles caught in the fallout.

Once upon a time – before the crash – a foreclosure in Massachusetts took about six months to move from petition to auction. In the midst of the crash, an Act to Protect and Preserve Homeownership was passed. One key provision of it – the 90-Day Right to Cure – took effect in May 2008. That and other factors caused the timeline for the first two steps in the state’s foreclosure process to balloon to more than two years.

Post-crisis came a wave of case law and legislation; while the numbers of petitions filed declined sharply in 2012, by 2013, lenders sat out of the game almost entirely, waiting for resolution and guidance. That resolution occurred last year and this year, and the numbers of petitions are climbing again – but the process still takes about 15 months. The second quarter 2015 spike will come to auction just in time for next year’s spring market.

Mark V. Cirignano of Resilient Investments buys, sells and rents foreclosed-upon properties and said the spike in foreclosures comes at a time of year he normally sees foreclosure activity slow down. He thinks recent court decisions like Pinti v. Emigrant Mortgage and others, which made it easier for homeowners to seek the reversal of their foreclosures, is making banks want to get those properties off their portfolios before another decision comes down that will make foreclosures even more difficult.

“It seems like banks are trying to get these foreclosures done before things change again,” he said. “It would be hard to explain that it’s coincidental. We normally see the slowdown at this time of year because banks don’t want to take possession of a home during the winter, but now they’re speeding up.”

In the third quarter of 2015, petitions were up 44 percent over the same time last year. Meanwhile, according to a recent report from real estate information analytics firm CoreLogic,  in September 2015 foreclosures were down 17.6 percent nationwide from September 2014, continuing the long, steady decline in the rate of foreclosures from its peak in 2011.

Attorney Richard Serkey, co-chair of the Title Standards Committee for the Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts, called it “a Massachusetts phenomenon, not a national one.”

The current spike in foreclosures is very different from the spike in 2010. Home prices are higher and unemployment is lower today. The regulatory and judicial environment is largely what makes the trend in Massachusetts run counter to the national trend of decreasing foreclosures.

Cirignano said the current batch of petitions are for loans delinquent for much longer than he is used to seeing, often for five years or more. That is consistent with the oft-heard explanation that lenders are clearing out their pipeline of loans that were defaulted on years ago.

“It’s not a new problem; they’re just getting around to the old ones,” he said, adding that Pinti and other cases have him and his colleagues feeling insecure about purchasing properties that have been foreclosed upon by banks.

“I’m paying cash for two properties I’m in the process of buying without title insurance,” Cirignano said. “I’m just taking that risk. It scares the hell out of us.”

Despite that fear, he said he still sees most of the same faces at every auction. They’re still investing in foreclosed-upon properties in spite of the risk that it’s now easier than ever for a Massachusetts homeowner to get a foreclosure reversed after the fact.

“We have blind faith that someone is going to figure out something, because you can’t shut down the entire foreclosure industry,” Cirignano said.

Serkey estimates that on average it takes between 800 and 900 days for a property to go through the foreclosure process in Massachusetts, and The Warren Group’s data agrees.

“Mortgagees here have had to work their way through a number of legislative, regulatory and judicial changes to the process, and that has likely reduced the percentage of cases making their way to finality,” Serkey said in an email. “The nature of the [Massachusetts] foreclosure process, which is more akin to a non-judicial foreclosure than a judicial one, tends to defer foreclosure challenges until after the sale has taken place and the lender initiates an eviction.”

A Partial Remedy On The Way?

Bills that would remedy the many foreclosed-upon properties with a title defect, once three years have passed after the foreclosure, have passed both the House and Senate and could be on Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk any day, once the two versions have been reconciled. If Baker signs the bill into law, it will remove some of the risk of buying foreclosed-upon properties.

Serkey, who conferred with colleagues in the foreclosure industry before responding to questions by email, said if the law passes it will improve the market for foreclosures.

“I believe that the skittishness in today’s foreclosed-upon properties market caused by these decisions will be ameliorated, to at least some degree, when the legislation recently passed by the Massachusetts House and Senate is reconciled and then signed by the governor,” Serkey wrote.