Filings Week Ending 2023 January 28

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2023-01-22 Search Period End: 2023-01-28 Earliest Case: 2023-01-23 Latest Case: 2023-01-27 Total Cases: 760 Total Transfers: 14 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 19.1% Of those, percentage pro se: 51.7% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Southbridge Least stable with 10+ filings: Randolph Least stable with 100+ filings: (not given) Least stable county: Nantucket Cases per day: 126 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 eastern 208 27.4% central 119 15.7% northeast 104 13.7% southeast 79 10.4% western 78 10.3% metro_south 77 10.1% chelsea district 8 1.1% quincy district 8 1.1% woburn district 8 1.1% framingham district 6 0.8% malden district 6 0.8% lawrence district 5 0.7% somerville district 5 0.7% brockton district 4 0.5% lynn district 4 0.5% attleboro district 3 0.4% cambridge district 3 0.4% salem district 3 0.4% barnstable district 2 0.3% bmc dorchester 2 0.3% hingham district 2 0.3% lowell district 2 0.3% nantucket district 2 0.3% springfield district 2 0.3% waltham district 2 0.3% westfield district 2 0.3% bmc brighton 1 0.1% chicopee district 1 0.1% concord district 1 0.1% dedham district 1 0.1% fallmouth district 1 0.1% greenfield district 1 0.1% holyoke district 1 0.1% natick district 1 0.1% newburyport district 1 0.1% northern berkshire district 1 0.1% peabody district 1 0.1% pittsfield district 1 0.1% plymouth district 1 0.1% stoughton district 1 0.1% taunton district 1 0.1% wrentham district 1 0.1% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 615 2 Natural Person 145 758 Total 760 760 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 80.9% 0.3% Natural Person 19.1% 99.7% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 603 12 615 Optional 70 75 145 Total 673 87 760 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 79.3% 1.6% 80.9% Optional 9.2% 9.9% 19.1% Total 88.6% 11.4% 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 3 755 758 Total 3 757 760 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 0.3% 0.3% Optional 0.4% 99.3% 99.7% Total 0.4% 99.6% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 42 5.5% 1 572 75.3% 2 113 14.9% 3 25 3.3% 4 6 0.8% 5 1 0.1% 6 1 0.1% Total 760 100.0% 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 565 74.3% Cause 123 16.2% No Fault 66 8.7% Foreclosure 6 0.8% Unknown/Other 0 0.0% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Southbridge 47 8 Nantucket 39 4 Randolph 37 12 Hyannis 35 5 Milford 35 10 Berlin 34 1 Pocasset 34 1 Bridgewater 33 9 Buzzards Bay 29 1 Fitchburg 29 12 Walpole 29 7 Fall River 27 24 Halifax 26 2 Marlborough 25 10 New Bedford 25 24 Turners Falls 24 1 Canton 23 5 Worcester 23 43 Bradford 22 3 Braintree 22 8 South Grafton 22 1 Oxford 21 3 Malden 20 12 Reading 20 5 Hull 19 2 Yarmouth Port 19 1 Saugus 18 5 Stoneham 18 4 Beverly 17 7 Chelsea 17 6 Framingham 17 12 Lynn 17 16 Middleborough 17 4 Rockland 17 3 Rowley 17 1 Spencer 17 2 Ashburnham 16 1 East Weymouth 16 9 Groveland 15 1 Lawrence 15 12 Medway 15 2 Clinton 14 2 Seekonk 14 2 Stoughton 14 4 Waltham 13 8 Whitman 13 2 Franklin 12 4 Leominster 12 5 Adams 11 1 Blackstone 11 1 Middleton 11 1 Pembroke 11 2 Webster 11 2 North Attleborough 10 3 East Wareham 9 2 Everett 9 4 Maynard 9 1 Natick 9 3 Peabody 9 5 Winchendon 9 1 Wrentham 9 1 Brockton 8 8 Burlington 8 2 Dudley 8 1 Norfolk 8 1 Shrewsbury 8 3 South Yarmouth 8 1 Tyngsborough 8 1 Wakefield 8 2 Wilmington 8 2 Ipswich 7 1 Mashpee 7 1 Melrose 7 2 Woburn 7 3 Abington 6 1 Amesbury 6 1 Bellingham 6 1 Gloucester 6 2 Haverhill 6 4 Hopkinton 6 1 Norwood 6 2 Quincy 6 6 Dorchester 5 5 Foxborough 5 1 Hudson 5 1 Hyde Park 5 2 Lowell 5 6 Medford 5 3 Norton 5 1 Revere 5 3 Taunton 5 3 Westborough 5 1 Weymouth 5 3 Gardner 4 1 Hingham 4 1 Mansfield 4 1 Methuen 4 2 Salem 4 2 Wareham 4 1 Westfield 4 2 Andover 3 1 Danvers 3 1 Dracut 3 1 East Walpole 3 1 Roslindale 3 1 Somerville 3 3 Watertown 3 1 Arlington 2 1 Attleborough 2 1 Holyoke 2 1 Jamaica Plain 2 1 Mattapan 2 1 Pittsfield 2 1 Cambridge 1 2 Chicopee 1 1 Dorchester Center 1 1 Plymouth 1 1 South Weymouth 1 1 Springfield 1 2 (not given) 0 298 span 0 1 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 Nantucket 113 4 Plymouth 88 38 Worcester 88 98 Norfolk 79 68 Bristol 71 59 Essex 59 65 Barnstable 51 10 Middlesex 38 90 Berkshire 12 2 Suffolk 10 20 Franklin 9 1 Hampden 8 6 Dukes 0 0 Hampshire 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. Methodology changes: 2022-03: Where docket history shows judgment and/or execution, but case has not been disposed, infer judgment and/or execution. 2022-05: Correct counting error in 'By prevailing party' section where agreement for judgment renders prevailing party unknown. Rows now sum to total. 2023-01: We now report dispositions on the basis of the last disposition found in a docket. Previously we were using a prioritized keyword match, which produced inaccurate results for complex cases. -- When Citing This Work, Please Credit: MassLandlords, Inc. Available online at https://masslandlords.net/policy/eviction-data/.