While differing foreclosure figures have been in the media for a while now, our emphasis began on looking in to foreclosure reporting companies. We attempted to gather some of the data directly from the source and analyze it for our visitors on ForeclosureResearch.com.

The main media source for foreclosure data and industry trends is RealtyTrac. This was our first contact. We were surprised to find that RealtyTrac does not publish general foreclosure numbers provided on the website home page like many of the other foreclosure listing services. Clicking on their county pages does provide statistics if you mouse over a county. Published on July 21, 2008, Los Angeles County had 12,756 foreclosures, or 1 in every 263 housing units. While the current county data was technically available, the data still doesn’t make it easy to assess nationwide or even statewide trends.

We contacted RealtyTrac.com in order to receive the reports or figures that are available to the press. When inquiring to the press contact regarding RealtyTrac’s reporting methods and current foreclosure figures, we received back the following according to the email from Rick Sharga, VP of Marketing, “RealtyTrac provides a number of reports for the press or any other interested parties. However, these reports are available at a fee.” The fees ranges from $100 per county report to $2,000 for a lender report. It seems as though, anybody interested would have to pay a small fortune for a general look into nationwide foreclosure trends and statistics.

We next contacted ForeclosureS.com, the secondary statistical provider for foreclosures in the industry. ForeclosureS.com also has no current foreclosure numbers on the homepage of their website. We recall in a visit to the website last month, the website stated that they have more than 5 million listings on the home page. In checking Los Angeles County to continue with the example above we found 1 of 3,000 matches on the search results page. However this was under the pre-foreclosures tab. When clicking on the foreclosure tab it also showed 1 of 3,000 matches. In fact all tabs showed 1 of 3,000 matches including auctions, which would represent a majority of the pre-foreclosure numbers. The only assumption we could make was that there were 3,000 current distressed properties in Los Angeles County which includes foreclosures, pre-foreclosures and auctions.

We contacted ForeclosureS.com to get more information on their current listings. We wanted more information on ForeclosureS.com reporting an increase from May to June where RealtyTrac reported a decrease, as discussed in the post titled, “Foreclosure Statistics Analyzed.”

ForeclosureS.com responded to our request with a generic email reply with a link to ForeclosureS.com’s “Nationwide Statistics.” However, the latest numbers on the nationwide foreclosure statistics page were the total pre-foreclosures in June, and no information referring to current foreclosures. As for our question regarding the latest foreclosure figures or the search results page for LA County, w received no answer, or commentary. Replying to the email with a secondary request for more information yielded an email promoting the next, “Super Summer Lab Sale on Learning,” webinar. It looks like we are now on their spam list.