Mass. foreclosures up 38% in the first quarter of this year, compared to last year.

Nothing like a little public outcry.

Boston Business Journal: The fourth quarter of 2007 saw the highest number of foreclosures in state history ...

"I want to shame them," Grossack said of attorneys Mark Harmon and Jason Greenberg. "They're not doing anything illegal. But it's not halachically correct, and it's not helping the Jewish community."

Looks like all the sharks in the mortgage racket are now being joined by sharks in the foreclosure resale market:

In one instance, three friends made the winning bid of $130,000 on a house in Lee. The mortgage company delayed the closing, then sent a letter in February offering to return the deposit. Before the friends responded, the company put the house back on the market for $179,000, then quickly agreed to sell it to someone else.

Milan Kohut had been charged with peddling without a license when police objected to him standing outside a Financial District branch of the Bank of America with a pile of nooses and a sign reading "Nooses on sale."

On Friday, a Boston Municipal Court judge dismissed the charges, the Dig reports. Kohut had argued he was making a political comment about the mortgage crisis, not actually trying to sell downtown workers a way to hang themselves. He's now asking for his nooses back.

Outside of the Red Line corridor, the prices of Dorchester housing units - especially multi-family properties - are crashing, the Dorchester Reporter reports. The mortgage crisis may not be the only reason:

... A less examined reason for the sinking market could be a decrease in fraud brought about by increased media and governmental focus on the sub-prime lending crisis. Several properties previously detailed in the Reporter appear to have been sold under curious circumstances. ...

Chris Lovett reports on a meeting of the mayor's Foreclosure Intervention Team yesterday morning:

"We're not as bad as '93 and '94, but we never want to get there," said the mayor. "And all the predictions we get are the worst is yet to come."

Lovett also provides a map showing properties which not only have been foreclosed but for which the owning banks have been unable to find buyers.

John Keith maps all the foreclosures in the city for January, 2008.