Real estate auctions, once rare in
New England, are on the rise and
even gaining some respectability
as a way to move property. In
some areas, most notably around
Boston and in southern Maine
and New Hampshire, the number
of homes sold at auction has
increased as much as 500% since
the boom days of 1986. Much of
this increase has been due to a
jump in foreclosures. Manchester's
New Hampshire Sunday News, for
instance, has 3 or 4 full pages in
the classified each week taken up
entirely by foreclosure auction
notices, most of them for singlefamily
homes.
But not all real-estate auctions
are fire sales. Auctioneers have
long argued that auctions can be a
good way to move property.