A post last week on The Real Estate Bloggers recounted how the former summer home of President John F. Kennedy's grandfather sold for a bargain price at a Feb. 28 foreclosure auction.

The Hull, Massachusetts home of John F. Kennedy’s grandfather sold at auction at a steep discount Tuesday for the price of $950,000. The home had been fraudulently purchased by  Jamie Edelkind who was sentenced for 5 years in jail. He was convicted of using phony mortgage and payroll documents. The assessors office appraised the land for tax valuation at 1.3 million dollars.

It appears that foreclosure auctions aren't an uncommon occurrence in Hull. A search today on RealtyTrac yielded 25 properties that have been scheduled for auction since the beginning of the year. That's a relatively high number of foreclosures for a town with a population of just 11,050. In fact Hull's foreclosure rate was 1.7 times the national average based on RealtyTrac numbers from the first quarter of 2006 (we plan to release full details on those numbers sometime next week).

Several of the Hull foreclosure properties are on Nantasket Avenue, the street where JFK's grandfather's former summer home is located, and one property posted on Feb. 3 closely matches the description given in news reports about the historic residence. A call to the trustee confirmed that this property sold at auction on Feb. 28. Any RealtyTrac subscribers who attended this auction took advantage of a good bargain-buying opportunity.