Filings Week Ending 2021 July 24

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2021-07-18 Search Period End: 2021-07-24 Earliest Case: 2021-07-19 Latest Case: 2021-07-23 Total Cases: 434 Total Transfers: 15 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 38.0% Of those, percentage pro se: 47.3% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Wendell Depot Least stable with 10+ filings: Worcester Least stable with 100+ filings: n/a Least stable county: Berkshire Cases per day: 72 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 central 103 23.7% northeast 59 13.6% eastern 57 13.1% southeast 55 12.7% western 44 10.1% metro_south 37 8.5% cambridge district 6 1.4% pittsfield district 6 1.4% quincy district 6 1.4% barnstable district 5 1.2% lynn district 5 1.2% lowell district 4 0.9% somerville district 4 0.9% waltham district 4 0.9% attleboro district 3 0.7% lawrence district 3 0.7% bmc brighton 2 0.5% brockton district 2 0.5% chelsea district 2 0.5% fall river district 2 0.5% fallmouth district 2 0.5% malden district 2 0.5% taunton district 2 0.5% bmc central 1 0.2% bmc east boston 1 0.2% bmc roxbury 1 0.2% eastern hampshire district 1 0.2% framingham district 1 0.2% haverhill district 1 0.2% ipswich district 1 0.2% nantucket district 1 0.2% newton district 1 0.2% northern berkshire district 1 0.2% orange district 1 0.2% palmer district 1 0.2% peabody district 1 0.2% springfield district 1 0.2% stoughton district 1 0.2% wareham district 1 0.2% westfield district 1 0.2% woburn district 1 0.2% worcester district 1 0.2% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 269 2 Natural Person 165 432 Total 434 434 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 62.0% 0.5% Natural Person 38.0% 99.5% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 264 5 269 Optional 87 78 165 Total 351 83 434 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 60.8% 1.2% 62.0% Optional 20.0% 18.0% 38.0% Total 80.9% 19.1% 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 0 2 2 Optional 12 420 432 Total 12 422 434 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 0.5% 0.5% Optional 2.8% 96.8% 99.5% Total 2.8% 97.2% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 27 6.2% 1 289 66.6% 2 93 21.4% 3 17 3.9% 4 7 1.6% 5 1 0.2% Total 434 100.0% 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 269 62.0% No Fault 83 19.1% Cause 77 17.7% Foreclosure 5 1.2% Unknown/Other 0 0.0% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Wendell Depot 1111 1 West Hyannisport 555 1 East Sandwich 57 2 Orange 51 4 Adams 47 4 North Adams 43 6 Monument Beach 35 1 East Falmouth 34 2 Worcester 29 54 Marlborough 28 11 Westminster 27 2 Turners Falls 24 1 South Grafton 22 1 Stoughton 22 6 Wareham 22 5 Mashpee 21 3 Marstons Mills 20 1 Nantucket 19 2 Warren 19 1 East Wareham 18 4 North Andover 17 5 North Attleborough 17 5 Pittsfield 17 8 Tyngsborough 17 2 Webster 17 3 Dorchester 16 15 Fall River 16 15 Hopedale 16 1 Bedford 15 2 Bridgewater 15 4 East Taunton 15 1 Revere 15 8 Centerville 14 2 Clinton 14 2 Dighton 14 1 Framingham 14 10 Hyannis 14 2 Ludlow 14 3 Swampscott 14 2 Belchertown 13 2 Malden 13 8 Shirley 13 1 West Roxbury 13 4 Westwood 13 2 Abington 12 2 Auburn 12 2 Fitchburg 12 5 North Grafton 12 1 South Hamilton 12 1 Blackstone 11 1 Needham Heights 10 3 Acton 9 2 Holbrook 9 1 Indian Orchard 9 1 Springfield 9 14 Winchendon 9 1 Athol 8 1 Belmont 8 2 Cambridge 8 9 Harwich 8 1 Haverhill 8 5 Hyde Park 8 3 Palmer 8 1 South Yarmouth 8 1 Taunton 8 5 Waltham 8 5 West Harwich 8 1 Brockton 7 7 Charlton 7 1 Holliston 7 1 Holyoke 7 3 Ipswich 7 1 Lynn 7 7 Medway 7 1 Millbury 7 1 New Bedford 7 7 Quincy 7 7 Seekonk 7 1 Wilbraham 7 1 Bellingham 6 1 Lowell 6 7 Methuen 6 3 Randolph 6 2 Somerville 6 5 Westport 6 1 Whitman 6 1 Beverly 5 2 Chelsea 5 2 Chicopee 5 3 Lawrence 5 4 Medford 5 3 Peabody 5 3 Pembroke 5 1 Scituate 5 1 Westborough 5 1 Weymouth 5 3 Winthrop 5 1 Woburn 5 2 Dedham 4 1 Dorchester Center 4 4 Everett 4 2 Gardner 4 1 Leominster 4 2 Salem 4 2 Wakefield 4 1 Westfield 4 2 Allston 3 1 Dracut 3 1 Franklin 3 1 Gloucester 3 1 Lexington 3 1 Milford 3 1 Natick 3 1 Norwood 3 1 Roslindale 3 1 Roxbury 3 2 Saugus 3 1 Watertown 3 1 West Springfield 3 1 Attleborough 2 1 Billerica 2 1 Braintree 2 1 Chelmsford 2 1 Dartmouth 2 1 E. Boston 2 1 East Boston 2 1 Boston 1 9 East Weymouth 1 1 (not given) 0 16 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 Berkshire 111 18 Barnstable 88 17 Worcester 73 82 Plymouth 57 25 Franklin 56 6 Nantucket 56 2 Bristol 46 38 Hampden 40 29 Norfolk 36 31 Essex 33 37 Middlesex 33 79 Suffolk 26 52 Hampshire 10 2 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/.