Filings Week Ending 2020 December 12

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2020-12-06 Search Period End: 2020-12-12 Earliest Case: 2020-12-07 Latest Case: 2020-12-12 Total Cases: 978 Total Transfers: 6 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 37.5% Of those, percentage pro se: 56.1% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Monterey Least stable with 10+ filings: New Bedford Least stable with 100+ filings: (not given) Least stable county: Bristol Cases per day: 163 Housing crisis baseline max cases per day (UCL): 130 Housing crisis baseline min cases per day (LCL): 44 The number of filings this period is statistically significantly above the pre-pandemic housing crisis baseline. -- Courts (n) Count Percent southeast 224 22.9% central 186 19.0% northeast 172 17.6% eastern 103 10.5% western 84 8.6% metro_south 68 7.0% lynn district 18 1.8% fall river district 16 1.6% bmc south boston 11 1.1% pittsfield district 10 1.0% peabody district 9 0.9% chelsea district 8 0.8% malden district 8 0.8% lowell district 7 0.7% woburn district 7 0.7% framingham district 6 0.6% quincy district 6 0.6% somerville district 4 0.4% cambridge district 3 0.3% lawrence district 3 0.3% newton district 3 0.3% orleans district 3 0.3% stoughton district 3 0.3% bmc east boston 2 0.2% chicopee district 2 0.2% fallmouth district 2 0.2% waltham district 2 0.2% ayer district 1 0.1% barnstable district 1 0.1% concord district 1 0.1% palmer district 1 0.1% southern berkshire district 1 0.1% taunton district 1 0.1% westfield district 1 0.1% wrentham district 1 0.1% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 611 5 Natural Person 367 973 Total 978 978 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 62.5% 0.5% Natural Person 37.5% 99.5% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 585 26 611 Optional 161 206 367 Total 746 232 978 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 59.8% 2.7% 62.5% Optional 16.5% 21.1% 37.5% Total 76.3% 23.7% 100.0% Defendant Representation Important: Defendants will not have an attorney known to the plaintiff at time of filing unless this is an ongoing matter. 100% pro se is to be expected in all filing reports except to the extent time passes between filing and staff review. See outcomes report for final assessment. (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0 5 5 Optional 18 955 973 Total 18 960 978 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 0.5% 0.5% Optional 1.8% 97.6% 99.5% Total 1.8% 98.2% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 55 5.6% 1 641 65.5% 2 219 22.4% 3 39 4.0% 4 13 1.3% 5 4 0.4% 6 4 0.4% 8 1 0.1% 9 2 0.2% Total 978 100.0% Note: Households may appear with zero adults due to clerical delay entering known defendants, identity protection obscuring known defendants (e.g., 42 USC Sections 13701 through 1404 Violence Against Women Act), or no adult defendants (e.g., abandonment of minors). Initiating Action Count Percent Non-payment 682 69.7% Unknown/Other 141 14.4% No Fault 76 7.8% Cause 72 7.4% Foreclosure 7 0.7% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Monterey 104 1 New Bedford 92 88 Fall River 84 75 Turners Falls 73 3 Seekonk 58 8 Milford 50 14 Chestnut Hill 47 1 Norton 47 9 West Dennis 45 1 Fitchburg 44 18 Athol 43 5 Southbridge 41 7 Worcester 38 70 North Falmouth 37 1 West Yarmouth 37 2 Leominster 34 14 Hardwick 33 1 Provincetown 33 1 Dorchester 32 30 Framingham 30 21 Buzzards Bay 29 1 Pittsfield 29 13 Webster 29 5 Osterville 28 1 Whitinsville 28 2 Holyoke 27 11 Sagamore Beach 27 1 Woburn 26 10 Spencer 25 3 Plymouth 24 14 West Springfield 24 7 Lynn 23 21 Boylston 22 1 Forestdale 22 1 Hyannis 21 3 Revere 21 11 Springfield 21 33 Bolton 20 1 Paxton 20 1 Hadley 19 1 Hull 19 2 Newtonville 19 1 Somerville 18 14 Stoneham 18 4 East Falmouth 17 1 Middleborough 17 4 Ashburnham 16 1 Hopedale 16 1 Mattapan 16 6 Mattapoisett 16 1 Newton Upper Falls 16 1 Orleans 16 1 Bridgewater 15 4 East Taunton 15 1 Hudson 15 3 Millbury 15 2 Peabody 15 8 Chelsea 14 5 Dighton 14 1 Oxford 14 2 Salem 14 6 Stoughton 14 4 Swampscott 14 2 Uxbridge 14 2 Brockton 13 13 Halifax 13 1 Fairhaven 12 2 Mansfield 12 3 Orange 12 1 Salisbury 12 1 Westport 12 2 Williamstown 12 1 Adams 11 1 Charlestown 11 2 Dorchester Center 11 11 Foxborough 11 2 Greenfield 11 2 Monson 11 1 Shrewsbury 11 4 Winthrop 11 2 Jamaica Plain 10 4 Taunton 10 6 Ware 10 1 Acushnet 9 1 Franklin 9 3 Gardner 9 2 Hanson 9 1 Indian Orchard 9 1 Lunenburg 9 1 Quincy 9 9 Rochdale 9 1 Winchendon 9 1 Brookline 8 5 Dudley 8 1 Haverhill 8 5 Hyde Park 8 3 Malden 8 5 North Dartmouth 8 2 Tyngsborough 8 1 West Harwich 8 1 Charlton 7 1 Clinton 7 1 Kingston 7 1 North Adams 7 1 North Easton 7 1 Wayland 7 1 Abington 6 1 Allston 6 2 Ashland 6 1 Attleborough 6 3 East Longmeadow 6 1 Hopkinton 6 1 Lawrence 6 5 Lowell 6 7 Northbridge 6 1 Roslindale 6 2 Swansea 6 1 Chicopee 5 3 Grafton 5 1 Roxbury 5 3 South Dartmouth 5 2 South Hadley 5 1 Acton 4 1 Belmont 4 1 Brighton 4 2 Burlington 4 1 Canton 4 1 Everett 4 2 Methuen 4 2 Westfield 4 2 Westford 4 1 Agawam 3 1 Andover 3 1 Boston 3 19 Danvers 3 1 Falmouth 3 1 Marshfield 3 1 Melrose 3 1 Needham 3 1 North Andover 3 1 Beverly 2 1 E. Boston 2 1 East Boston 2 1 Marlborough 2 1 Cambridge 1 2 East Weymouth 1 1 Medford 1 1 Newton 1 1 (not given) 0 193 Rate per 100,000 residents based on 2010 census. Municipalities do not appear if no evictions filed. Where neighborhoods are commonly recognized as municipalities, data appears under the neighborhood rather than the legal entity (e.g., "Roxbury" is separate from "Boston".) Where municipalities have alternate spellings (e.g., Marlboro for Marlborough), totals appear under the long form. Efforts are made to correct clerical errors in the court database, but clerical errors may appear. Rate per 100,000 County Renter Households Count Bristol 249 205 Worcester 147 164 Berkshire 105 17 Plymouth 99 43 Hampden 84 60 Barnstable 82 16 Franklin 56 6 Suffolk 52 104 Essex 49 54 Norfolk 36 31 Middlesex 35 82 Hampshire 16 3 Dukes 0 0 Nantucket 0 0 Rate per 100,000 renter households based on 2019 ACS. Counties appear even if no evictions filed. -- Data Sources (report errors to hello@masslandlords.net): County Data Households Percent Renters Barnstable 96,509 20.0% Berkshire 53,792 30.0% Bristol 220,528 37.3% Dukes 18,146 22.6% Essex 297,898 36.9% Franklin 30,927 34.1% Hampden 179,970 39.5% Hampshire 60,002 30.7% Middlesex 612,366 38.1% Nantucket 11,399 30.8% Norfolk 269,717 31.6% Plymouth 191,041 22.6% Suffolk 309,945 63.7% Worcester 316,162 35.2% County Households: 2019 ACS TableID S1101 County Households and Renters, Dukes and Nantucket: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/dukescountymassachusetts County Households and Renters, Large Counties: https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=S11&g=0400000US25.050000&d=ACS%201-Year%20Estimates%20Subject%20Tables&tid=ACSST1Y2019.S1101&hidePreview=true Dukes County Renters: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/dukescountymassachusetts Nantucket County Renters: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/nantucketcountymassachusetts -- Methodology Publicly available records at MassCourts.org are read fully manually at two intervals: 1.) For a filings report, once within approximately one week of filing; 2.) For an outcomes report, once again approximately 12 to 18 months after filing. This effort costs more than 1 FTE. Summary spreadsheets are produced by copying exactly what is read. The spreadsheets are processed using proprietary software. Repeated analyses of local spreadsheets does not burden the MassCourts servers. The software is developed using best practices for revision control and regression testing. Limitations: Data are snapshots. As such, we cannot track individual cases over time or produce real-time reports. MassLandlords does not have access to court databases beyond what is published in human readable form at MassCourts.org. As of this report, MassLandlords staff were not considering information available to attorneys (e.g., the contents of notices, discovery, evidence, etc.) but not available to the general public. All data presented here are readily verifiable at MassCourts.org without special permission. Information is not independently verified outside of the court record. For instance, clerical errors in address, omissions of a defendant, etc. are not readily verifiable. As this process matures, reporting algorithms may change. Transfers are counted as new cases. Clerical differences between original case and transfer (e.g., middle initial included then dropped; defendant dropped on transfer; street address spelling changed) as well as the potential for indefinite circular transferring (e.g., foreclosure cases moving between housing, land, and/or superior courts) make it very difficult to programmatically identify continuing matters. -- When Citing This Work, Please Credit: MassLandlords, Inc. Available online at https://masslandlords.net/policy/eviction-data/.