Foreclosures harass Hillsborough County

New Hampshire Foreclosure News  

By DAVID BROOKS, Telegraph Staff
dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com

Property foreclosures continued on a record pace in Hillsborough County through the third quarter of the year, but while Nashua and most its neighbors are seeing sharp rises, towns farther west in the Souhegan Valley seem to be largely avoiding the problem.

Overall, Hillsborough County is on pace to have some 550 foreclosures of homes and businesses this year, an increase of more than 80 percent from last year and five times the total of 2005, according to data through Sept. 24 from the Hillsborough County Register of Deeds.

And the rate of foreclosures isn't slowing: The number filed in the third quarter of the year was the same as were filed in the first two quarters.

An August report from the New Hampshire Banking Association predicted foreclosures in the state would continue to increase at least through the first half of 2008 as problems with adjustable-rate and "subprime" mortgages continue to roil the national economy.

The report also predicted that by one measure – foreclosures compared to the number of total mortgages – the situation wouldn't get as bad as it did during the recession of the early 1990s.

According to numbers from the county registrar, this year's increase in foreclosures isn't spread evenly around Greater Nashua.

Nashua and Merrimack, for example, are echoing the situation in the county as a whole: Both should see roughly 85 percent more foreclosures this year than last.

As a measure of how much this unpleasant economic indicator has increased, Nashua will almost certainly have more foreclosures this year than all of Hillsborough County had just two years ago.

But Hudson saw a sharp hike, the biggest among large towns – it's on pace to see annual foreclosures more than triple. It isn't clear why, however.

"Maybe it's an extension of amount of entry-level housing," said Jim Michaud, the town's assistant assessor. "But that's just conjecture."

In general, foreclosure rates have increased most sharply in areas with more first-time homebuyers, who are more likely to take out newer types of mortgages that produce budget-busting increases in monthly payments as they go along.

"The places where it's going to hit the hardest is the places where we're seeing the real (combinations) of stuff – no money down, new mortgages," said state Banking Commissioner Peter Hildreth.

Hudson's increase also reflects the fact that last year the town's mortgage market was in good shape because a large percentage increase is easier when starting from a small number.

"We're coming out of an extraordinarily low period of foreclosure," Michaud said.

The country registrar's office says Hudson had just nine foreclosures last year – half the number of Merrimack, which has roughly the same population. This year, the two communities have seen roughly the same number of foreclosures.

A similar effect is visible in Litchfield, which has seen a 900 percent increase in foreclosures – because it had only one of them last year.

At the opposite end of the trend is the Souhegan Valley and points west.

Wilton, Milford and Mont Vernon have seen their number of foreclosures actually decline slightly this year, while the year-to-year numbers are virtually flat in Amherst, Hollis, Brookline and the three Mascenic towns.

It isn't clear why Milford in particular, a town that has traditionally served as a point for entry-level housing in the Souhegan Valley, isn't seeing the effects of the mortgage implosion. Only four foreclosures have been registered in Milford this year.

One possibility is that it's far enough west to have avoided the surge of commuting residents moving north from Massachusetts in search of a first home in places where housing is cheaper.

Hildreth said that when the state's mortgage outreach program, designed to help people avoid foreclosures, went to Keene, officials were told foreclosures weren't much of a problem there.

"That's not a commuter area; that may be difference," Hildreth said.

For more New Hampshire News and related stories, please visit the New Hampshire Foreclosure home page.

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