Filings Month Ending 2021 June 30

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2021-06-01 Search Period End: 2021-06-30 Earliest Case: 2021-06-01 Latest Case: 2021-06-30 Total Cases: 1739 Total Transfers: 53 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 37.4% Of those, percentage pro se: 51.9% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Woronoco Least stable with 10+ filings: North Adams Least stable with 100+ filings: Worcester Least stable county: Barnstable Cases per day: 59 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 not statistically different from the pre-pandemic housing crisis baseline. -- Courts (n) Count Percent northeast 331 19.0% central 294 16.9% western 285 16.4% southeast 234 13.5% eastern 208 12.0% metro_south 120 6.9% quincy district 23 1.3% lynn district 19 1.1% fall river district 14 0.8% pittsfield district 14 0.8% chelsea district 13 0.7% malden district 13 0.7% northern berkshire district 13 0.7% brockton district 12 0.7% cambridge district 10 0.6% springfield district 10 0.6% framingham district 9 0.5% woburn district 9 0.5% barnstable district 8 0.5% fallmouth district 7 0.4% haverhill district 7 0.4% lowell district 7 0.4% orleans district 7 0.4% bmc east boston 6 0.3% newburyport district 6 0.3% bmc west roxbury 5 0.3% milford district 5 0.3% attleboro district 4 0.2% waltham district 4 0.2% nantucket district 3 0.2% salem district 3 0.2% somerville district 3 0.2% taunton district 3 0.2% worcester district 3 0.2% ayer district 2 0.1% bmc central 2 0.1% hingham district 2 0.1% lawrence district 2 0.1% new bedford district 2 0.1% peabody district 2 0.1% plymouth district 2 0.1% uxbridge district 2 0.1% wrentham district 2 0.1% bmc roxbury 1 0.1% concord district 1 0.1% dedham district 1 0.1% gloucester district 1 0.1% holyoke district 1 0.1% leominster district 1 0.1% natick district 1 0.1% newton district 1 0.1% westfield district 1 0.1% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 1088 7 Natural Person 651 1732 Total 1739 1739 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 62.6% 0.4% Natural Person 37.4% 99.6% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 1059 29 1088 Optional 313 338 651 Total 1372 367 1739 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 60.9% 1.7% 62.6% Optional 18.0% 19.4% 37.4% Total 78.9% 21.1% 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 2 5 7 Optional 33 1699 1732 Total 35 1704 1739 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.1% 0.3% 0.4% Optional 1.9% 97.7% 99.6% Total 2.0% 98.0% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 104 6.0% 1 1228 70.6% 2 316 18.2% 3 72 4.1% 4 13 0.7% 5 5 0.3% 9 1 0.1% Total 1739 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 994 57.2% Cause 410 23.6% No Fault 323 18.6% Foreclosure 12 0.7% Unknown/Other 0 0.0% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Woronoco 900 1 Florence 210 2 Warwick 128 1 East Falmouth 103 6 North Adams 94 13 Gilbertville 86 1 Marstons Mills 82 4 Hyannis 78 11 Bellingham 73 12 Lowell 72 77 Fall River 69 62 Fitchburg 64 26 Dennis Port 63 2 New Bedford 61 58 Worcester 61 111 Eastham 60 3 Haverhill 59 36 Webster 59 10 Framingham 58 40 West Yarmouth 56 3 Amesbury 55 9 Marlborough 54 21 South Dennis 54 2 Ayer 53 4 Brockton 53 50 Baldwinville 52 1 Everett 52 22 Athol 51 6 Chelsea 51 18 Lawrence 51 39 East Boston 49 20 West Wareham 46 1 Lynn 44 40 South Yarmouth 43 5 Whitinsville 43 3 Dorchester 40 37 Cohasset 39 3 Gardner 39 8 Malden 38 23 Revere 38 20 North Falmouth 37 1 Milford 35 10 Pittsfield 35 16 Berlin 34 1 Pocasset 34 1 Rockland 34 6 Taunton 34 19 Braintree 33 12 Hardwick 33 1 Orleans 33 2 Chatham 32 2 Fiskdale 32 1 Lanesborough 32 1 Ashland 30 5 Cheshire 30 1 Groveland 30 2 Buzzards Bay 29 1 Hull 29 3 Lunenburg 29 3 Raynham 29 4 Salem 29 12 Southbridge 29 5 Winchendon 29 3 East Sandwich 28 1 Winthrop 28 5 Halifax 26 2 Leominster 26 11 Norton 26 5 Saugus 26 7 Dorchester Center 25 23 Fairhaven 25 4 Falmouth 25 8 Middleborough 25 6 Millis 25 2 Orange 25 2 Randolph 24 8 Salisbury 24 2 Bedford 22 3 Bradford 22 3 Bridgewater 22 6 Danvers 22 6 Hubbardston 22 1 Middleton 22 2 Quincy 22 21 South Grafton 22 1 Dennis 21 3 North Andover 21 6 North Brookfield 21 1 Oxford 21 3 Westborough 21 4 Boxborough 20 1 Roslindale 20 6 Woburn 20 8 Mattapan 19 7 Maynard 19 2 Northbridge 19 3 Attleborough 18 8 Barre 18 1 Leicester 18 2 Onset 18 4 Springfield 18 29 Weymouth 18 10 Dudley 17 2 Mansfield 17 4 Mendon 17 1 Rowley 17 1 Tyngsborough 17 2 Belmont 16 4 Cambridge 16 17 Concord 16 3 Newton Upper Falls 16 1 Sudbury 16 3 Wakefield 16 4 Beverly 15 6 Bourne 15 3 Brighton 15 7 Lincoln 15 1 Roxbury 15 9 Watertown 15 5 Arlington 14 6 Dalton 14 1 Great Barrington 14 1 Mashpee 14 2 Medford 14 8 Stoughton 14 4 Swampscott 14 2 Canton 13 3 Hingham 13 3 Jamaica Plain 13 5 North Attleborough 13 4 North Reading 13 2 Norwood 13 4 Shirley 13 1 Tewksbury 13 4 Abington 12 2 Burlington 12 3 Chicopee 12 7 Lancaster 12 1 Adams 11 1 Assonet 11 1 Blackstone 11 1 Charlestown 11 2 Chelmsford 11 4 Greenfield 11 2 Holden 11 2 Marshfield 11 3 Milton 11 3 Roxbury Crossing 11 7 Sutton 11 1 Amherst 10 4 Hudson 10 2 Plymouth 10 6 Cherry Valley 9 1 E. Boston 9 4 East Wareham 9 2 Holbrook 9 1 Indian Orchard 9 1 Nantucket 9 1 Peabody 9 5 South Easton 9 1 Waltham 9 6 Wrentham 9 1 Brookline 8 5 Carver 8 1 Dedham 8 2 Rehoboth 8 1 South Boston 8 3 Spencer 8 1 Clinton 7 1 East Bridgewater 7 1 Holliston 7 1 Ipswich 7 1 Kingston 7 1 Medway 7 1 Millbury 7 1 Northborough 7 1 Somerville 7 6 Uxbridge 7 1 Wayland 7 1 Wilbraham 7 1 Dracut 6 2 Easthampton 6 1 Franklin 6 2 Gloucester 6 2 Lexington 6 2 Longmeadow 6 1 Natick 6 2 Swansea 6 1 Westport 6 1 Westwood 6 1 Whitman 6 1 East Weymouth 5 3 Foxborough 5 1 Holyoke 5 2 Hyde Park 5 2 Scituate 5 1 South Dartmouth 5 2 South Hadley 5 1 South Weymouth 5 3 Acton 4 1 Billerica 4 2 Methuen 4 2 North Dartmouth 4 1 Stoneham 4 1 Wareham 4 1 Winchester 4 1 Allston 3 1 Andover 3 1 Boston 3 20 Melrose 3 1 Wellesley 3 1 West Roxbury 3 1 Dartmouth 2 1 Shrewsbury 2 1 Westfield 2 1 Newton 1 1 Newton Highlands 1 1 (not given) 0 291 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 Barnstable 310 60 Plymouth 231 100 Bristol 215 177 Berkshire 210 34 Worcester 208 232 Essex 167 184 Middlesex 130 304 Norfolk 120 103 Suffolk 99 197 Hampden 60 43 Franklin 47 5 Hampshire 43 8 Nantucket 28 1 Dukes 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. Cases are searched by 'case type' = 'summary process', party type = 'plaintiff' within date ranges, typically weekly. MassCourts.org displays matches, not cases. X plaintiffs on a single case result in X separate matches. Cases are manually de-duplicated. Where the number of matches exceeds the number displayed (e.g., 'Displaying 100 of 257 total matches.'), date ranges are reduced until all cases may be viewed. If the date range cannot be reduced (i.e., is one day) but matches still exceed the display limit of 100, then two additional passes are taken. First, municipalities are filtered in stages. Second, to capture cases with no municipality entered, the search switches from 'case type' to 'case number', guessing the missing numbers assuming serialized entry. This method results in 'matches' reconciled to case counts. 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/.