Nashua, Manchester see fewer foreclosures

The foreclosure picture in Nashua and Manchester improved in the second quarter of 2009, marking the cities’ first good news since The Telegraph began tracking the data more than two years ago.

However, the foreclosure numbers remain bad by historical measures, and the improvement did not extend throughout Greater Nashua. Most of the towns in the region, including Hudson, Merrimack and Milford, saw foreclosure numbers rise over 2008’s already high level.

In Nashua, figures released by the Hillsborough County Registry of Deeds showed a comparatively good picture. The city had 20 percent fewer foreclosures in April through June, compared to last year’s second quarter.

Manchester did even better: Its foreclosure numbers fell by one-third from last year.

Despite this sharp improvement, both cities still had more foreclosures in the second quarter of 2009 than in the second quarter of 2007 – a measure of how much foreclosure rates have soared during this recession.

And this year has seen little or no improvement elsewhere. Hudson and Milford have seen a slight increase in foreclosures compared to 2009, while Merrimack had a very sharp increase.

Locally, only Amherst, Hollis and Wilton saw their foreclosure numbers decline. Since the recession hit, all of these have had single-digit foreclosure rates each quarter, and such small numbers often fluctuate from year to year.

Foreclosures in Hillsborough County

Number of foreclosures in the second quarter (April through June) of recent years: