Mortgage Fraud on the Rise

New data suggests that mortgage fraud may be once again on the rise. After reaching a peak in 2006, mortgage fraud has began to become more problematic again, increasing 17% from last year.


Read more about this trend at the Wall Street Journal here.

Electronic Grantor Index Live

The Registry of Deeds is pleased to announce that we have enabled an electronic version of our Grantor Index from 1731 to 1965 on several of our public access computers in the Registry. We are completing training for staff and frequent users of the Grantor Index this week. Please inquire with a Registry staff member if you would like to access the electronic Grantor Index. Additionally, we hope to launch an online version of the Grantor Index in the near future.

Labor Day Holiday

The Registry of Deeds will be closed on Monday, September 6, 2010 in observance of Labor Day. We thank all American workers for their contributions which have built and strengthened our nation.

Registry of Deeds Technology Advisory Committee Meeting

The Registries of Deeds of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are required to meet each year with the Registry of Deeds Technology Advisory Committee members to report on the status of the Registries of Deeds and the use of the Registry of Deeds Technology Funds. The meeting will be hosted by the Secretary of the Commonwealth on Monday, August 30, 2010, in Boston. The Worcester District Registry of Deeds will present the following to the Technology Advisory Committee:

For Fiscal Year 2010, the Worcester District Registry of Deeds collected $25,970,229.90 in total income. The Fiscal Year 2010 budget for the Registry of Deeds was $2,345,612.00. For Fiscal Year 2011, the budget of the Registry of Deeds has been reduced by $117,281.00 to $2,228,331.00.

The Registry of Deeds is targeting October 4, 2010 for the launch of the Electronic Recording Massachusetts Portal Pilot Project. Additionally, the Registry of Deeds has digitized the Grantor indicies from 1731 to 1965. The Grantor indicies will be available online and in house in a phone-book directory format with links to the corresponding images.

The Registry of Deeds future goals include:

• Implementation of an automatic redacting system at the time of recording
• Restoration and Preservation of Historical Records
• Implementation of property fraud alert software

Changes to Masslandrecords.com

Several changes that should dramatically enhance the performance of the new Masslandrecords,com search have been implemented. We encourage all users to use the new version in the upcoming weeks and give us your feedback via phone or email. The old version will continue to remain on the site should you experience any problems with the new version. Click here to access the new version of Masslandrecords.com.