It is now the second week in August and the rush for July foreclosure figures have begun. All foreclosure reporting companies have released their share of data to the media. The latest comes from a press release published August 11, 2008, “ForeclosureS.com: Pre-foreclosure Filings Set Record in July.” According to the article pre-foreclosure filings hit record highs in 14 states for the month of July.

We took thee states, and decided to compare the data with the actual listings on the web site. While foreclosureS.com offers a comprehensive “Press-Inquiry” statistics page, it is almost impossible to see the information broken down, into real time, without meticulous searching. The three states in question appear below, with their respective record monthly filings.
• Nevada (7,993);
• Hawaii (373);
• District of Columbia (206);
As for Nevada, the large number was not all that alarming as it is know across all sources of the heightened foreclosure activity through the state, particularly in Clark County. However, according to a previous Foreclosure Research post, “Figuring Out the Figures,” ForeclosureS.com usually only lists 3,000 records in high-volume areas such as Los Angeles County.
Only 3,000 records for Clark County were available on the website. With further calculations, all other counties in Nevada totaled 2,304. This figure plus the 3,000 max listings for Clark County equals only 5,304, leaving a total of 2,689 foreclosure listings unaccounted for.
As for Hawaii, we uncovered a similar finding. All total pre-foreclosure records found on the website for the published period of July totaled 124, leaving more than double the number of filings unaccounted for.
The most conclusive of all this data can be found with the District of Columbia foreclosure figures. ForeclosureS.com advises that Washington D.C. had a record of 206 foreclosure filings for the month of July. However, when you search for Washington D.C. on the ForeclosureS.com site, you will see that actually there are no pre-foreclosures available, and the pre-foreclosure tab is not even an option.
Based on the information collected, one could then conclude that ForeclosureS.com lists a different set of data for their subscribers, than they actually report to the media.

Notes:

Nevada (7,993);
Based on the date published:

Nevada foreclosures by County:
Carson- 840
Clark- only 3,000 at any given time
Churchill- 16
Douglas- 48
Elko- 17
Humboldt- 4
Lyon County- 600 (80 listings default loan amount $65 million?)
Nye -150
Pershing- 14
Washoe- 615
White Pine– 5
Total available on site: 5309
Leaving 2684 unaccounted for.

Washington DC: No pre-foreclosure listings

Hawaii foreclosures by County:
18 Hawaii County
75- Honolulu County
8- Kauai
23- Maui
Hawaii total (on listings): 124
Hawaii reported: 373