Recently in Foreclosure in Boston:

According to RealtyTrac, there were nearly three times the number of short sales as there were foreclosed homes in 2012.

The numbers show that across the nation, foreclosures made up 11% of all sales. Short sales comprised 32% of all home sales, according to CNNMoney.

If short sales are so common, how easy are they? And what does the process involve?

What happens when your house is worth less than what you owe -- i.e., when your home is underwater? What's your best option?

Is it smart to walk away from your mortgage? Is strategic default the answer?

There's no perfect answer for this question. It's a facts-and-circumstances kind of question. Everyone has different facts and circumstances.

Can people really walk way that easily from their homes?

The housing market has picked up dramatically, but there are still many distressed homeowners out there.

For those who are having trouble making their mortgage payments, there are multiple options to consider.

Here are three of the most common:

Massachusetts foreclosures are at a six year low, reports The Boston Globe.

According to The Globe, October's numbers were 52 percent lower than October 2011. Only 371 Massachusetts homes foreclosed in October.

That's great news for many. To starter, it signals the positive economic recovery in and around the Boston area. A large part of the economic downfall centered around the housing bubble and the subsequent housing market crash. Less foreclosures are certainly indicative on many levels of growth in the housing market.

The polls are closed. The verdict's in. And Elizabeth Warren now represents Massachusetts.

So what does that mean for homeowners in Massachusetts? What does Elizabeth Warren have to say about the housing bubble?

Earlier this year, Warren released a statement on the settlement between 49 state attorney generals and five mortgage lenders on the robosigning lawsuits, reports MassLive. "Moving forward, further investigation and prosecution are needed to bring our long national mortgage nightmare to an end," Warren said.

The Federal Government's crackdown on mortgage foreclosure fraud against is starting to yield results.

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the results of the Distressed Homeowner Initiative.

The initiative focused on fraudulent schemes targeting struggling homeowners, namely foreclosure scams and loan modification schemes.

Does bankruptcy discharge your mortgage debt?

You would be inclined to believe so, right?

According to letters sent out by several banks to former homeowners, that didn't look like the case. A columnist for The New York Times reports the banks are now claiming to be forgiving debts that have long been let go.

The years between 2008 and 2011 were not so good for Massachusetts homeowners. That's because it was a time when more than 21,000 homeowners lost their homes through the foreclosure process.

At the same time, home prices were going crazy, jobs were disappearing like David Copperfield was in control, and national banks were foreclosing on homes that people could no longer afford. However, they were skipping important steps in the foreclosure process through a practice now known as "robosigning," according to the Boston Globe. This type of signing meant that no one was properly reviewing the paperwork necessary to repossess a house.

Although Massachusetts has not been hit as hard as California, Nevada, or Florida with the number of foreclosures, there are still many more than in the past. With the economy only slowly ticking upward and the housing market still languishing for sellers, it's more difficult than ever to avoid the potential for the worst.

This is why FindLaw has put together a mini-guide dealing with how to avoid or survive foreclosure proceedings. The guide provides you with helpful information as well as links to sites where you can find more information or contact a lawyer.

It seems like the housing crisis has dragged on and on for years. There seemed to be no answer for the continuing foreclosures across the country, with numbers growing every day. Only recently have governments and banks alike really tried to attack the problem head on.

Citigroup's newest angle on underwater mortgages is to sell the mortgage to an investment company that would then take over ownership of the home and rent it back to the residents at a rate lower than what they were paying in mortgage payments, according to The Associated Press.

Is this a good deal for those underwater on their loans?