Since the beginning of the real estate downturn the media has been reporting some rather shocking headlines. Whether the headlines and the corresponding articles are based on truly shocking data or spun to sound more drastic is up to the reader to decide. The latest foreclosure report was released last Thursday, July 10, 2008.

Most of the headlines reflected an increase in foreclosures by 53 percent. An article written by Alan Zibel for the Associated Press, dated July 10, 2008, was titled, “US foreclosure filings surge 53 percent in June.” Another article, written by Dan Levy for Bloomberg, had the following headline, “Foreclosures Rose 53% in June, Bank Seizures Tripled.” Even Reuters offered a similar article, “June home foreclosures up 53 percent.”

However, with further analysis into the article readers will find that although foreclosures “surged” 53 percent in June from the same month one year ago, foreclosures actually decreased 3 percent from the month prior. One would imagine that the decrease in foreclosures should have been the focal point considering the public is surrounded by constant news of a weakening economy.

In further examination a reader should also consider what the 53 percent figure actually represents and how that figure is reflected on a national scale. All the articles listed above do not mention that the 53 percent accounts for roughly 87,000 new foreclosures nationwide. While that number in itself may seem high, it is much less if it were to be spread out on a state level or even a county level, which would then represent only 1,740 new foreclosures per state or 27 new foreclosures per county.

Readers would have had to sort through the deluge of foreclosure articles to find just one article that in fact reported and focused on a decrease in foreclosures. Through all the sorting I did find an article that reported a decrease in foreclosures. An article from the Palm Beach Post published on Thursday, July 10, 2008 was titled, “Florida foreclosure filings rise, national numbers fall.” The article written by an unknown author could be further analyzed. Although the article reported a national decrease in foreclosures, they also reported an increase in foreclosures for the publisher’s home state. A reader could then surmise, did the author add the national decrease only to make the Florida rates seem more dire? It is up to the reader to make informed decisions about the foreclosure rates, uninterrupted by bias in the media, in order to find out the truth about foreclosure data.