Some smaller Bay State communities appear to have had the biggest increases in foreclosures this year.

In Greenfield, home foreclosures almost doubled to 22 from 12 last year, according to The Warren Group.  Raynham’s foreclosures jumped 75 percent, and in Marshfield, foreclosures increased almost 60 percent to 41 from 26.

Nantucket has had the sharpest increase, with 19 foreclosures compared to only 1 through November of 2008.

Overalll, fewer people in Massachusetts have lost their homes to foreclosure this year.  The Warren Group reports that a total of 8,409 foreclosures were recorded in the first 11 months of the year, down 27 percent from a year ago. Still, more homeowners have faced foreclosure this year.

Petitions to foreclose, which are filed in Massachusetts Land Court in the first step of the foreclosure process, have increased 28 percent to 25,868.

One of the biggest challenges for real estate agents, especially in a down market, is getting home sellers to price their property to accurately reflect market value.

That’s why a recent article in the Hartford Courant about underpricing homes caught my attention. The article highlights a home seller and agent who priced a property slightly below market value to generate interest and spark a bidding war.  The home ended up getting four offers in a little more than a week and ended up selling for more than the asking price.

It’s a risky strategy and most homeowners aren’t eager to follow such advice. But in a market where there is a lot of competition and homes are taking longer to sell, it may be a seller’s only hope – especially if he has to sell quickly.

In Massachusetts, home sales have picked up for four consecutive months, according to The Warren Group. But some fear that the sales gains could be temporary once the homebuyer tax credit disappears in the spring. The Warren Group will release November home sales numbers next Tuesday.

In the meantime, agents who are assisting home sellers who have to move may be more seriously considering tactics like underpricing. Is it worth the risk?

A neighbor of mine recently asked her daughter-in-law what she wanted for Christmas. Her daughter-in-law quickly replied that she didn’t want or need anything, except to find a house to buy.

The young woman and her husband are both Boston-area professionals who are currently renting in Needham. They started their search in the summer before they were married and then put it off until after their wedding.

With low mortgage interest rates and prices a lot lower then they once were, they thought they could find a property fairly quickly. But they’ve had trouble finding a decent home in their price range, and now with inventory down, they’re just plain frustrated.

The number of for-sale listings typically drops as we approach the holidays, when most folks are more focused on gift shopping, office parties and decorating than they are about cleaning their homes to make them presentable for showings.

 But this year, the number of listings is especially low.

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported last month that the number of single-family home listings dropped 15 percent in October compared to the same month last year.

Perhaps a flood of homes will come onto the market in February and March, just before the buyer tax credit expires.  For now, the young couple is just waiting it out.

As if home sellers didn’t have enough to worry about, now they have to beware of one more thing: scam artists who post their home as a rental on Craigslist.

A Brockton couple who was trying to sell their home had a few would-be tenants show up at their front door saying they saw their home listed for rent on Craigslist.

Someone had taken the for-sale listing from the couple’s Realtor’s Web site and pasted it into a Craigslist ad requesting that interested tenants send $950 to rent the house and that the keys would be mailed to them.

The homeowners were interviewed on WCVB-ABC Channel 5 last night and when asked what should be done to fraudster, the husband said, “His typing fingers should be cut off.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t a new scam. The Massachusetts Association of Realtors sent a warning to its members back in May. The group told Realtors that photos and listing information were being taken from Realtor.com and other online sources to trick renters.

The Obama administration is putting the pressure on lenders to provide permanent loan modifications for homeowners in danger of foreclosure.

So far, the federal government’s efforts to prevent foreclosures by getting mortgage companies and banks to rewrite loans have fallen short.

More than 650,000 trial loan modifications have been issued but that’s only helped about 20 percent of eligible borrowers and the new loan terms are temporary.

In Massachusetts alone, almost 40,000 owners of single-family homes and condos have faced foreclosure since 2007, according to The Warren Group. 

Officials want to make sure that the temporary loan modifications are converted to permanent ones, so they’re saying they’re going to crack down lenders who aren’t doing enough by possibly fining them and withholding any financial incentives until trial modifications are made permanent.

They’re also requiring lenders to provide a status report on modifications and submit a schedule of their plans to reach a decision on each loan.

Banks have been complaining that it’s tough to get borrowers to send in properly completed paperwork in time to make the loan modifications. It’s too confusing for the average borrower, they say.

Lawyers and advocates who represent struggling homeowners say it’s the banks that are losing paperwork that’s submitted multiple times and shuffling their clients from one department to the next.

I’m sure both complaints are valid.