Over the last year, a handful of articles have come out disputing certain foreclosure listing companies from releasing inaccurate foreclosure data into the media.  Unfortunately, due to the illusive nature of foreclosures in themselves, these articles do not come out as often as need be.  But when these reports are released, they come out with their gloves off. The latest of these reports comes out of West Virginia.

According to an article published by the Charleston Gazette, “five times more West Virginia homes and businesses were sold in foreclosure in 2007,” than Realty Trac statistics reported.  The article published on September 21, 2008, titled, “How many foreclosures? ‘We know we’re underreporting in West Virginia,’” was referring to a quote from Realty Trac executive, Rick Sharga.

The article author, Kate Long, discovered that according to the 55 state-wide county courthouses, Realty Trac reported at least 2,077 fewer foreclosures than the state has. Put in typical media and foreclosure reporting fashion, that would equal a staggering difference of 227%.

Long suggests that while West Virginia foreclosures have not been too detrimental to the state, the problem is the fact that legislation governing predatory lending are affected by the specific foreclosure numbers offered by Realty Trac. If the foreclosure listing company reports little to no foreclosures in West Virginia, then lobbyists can use that information against anti-predatory lending solutions.

The article quotes Delegate Carrie Webster, a house chairwoman, as stating that “decisions have been made on the basis of those numbers that affect people’s lives.” She continues by saying “bad numbers don’t make good policy.”

Referring back to the article title, Rick Sharga (RealtyTrac) provided the following insight, “West Virginia is one of the states where we need to do a better job.”  He continues by stating, “We know we’re under reporting in West Virginia,” and that “we concentrate on areas of 25,000 people or more.”

Further along Sharga states that, “we do the best we can, given the imperfect nature of public record data and don’t knowingly mislead anybody with this information.”

Unfortunately, this is not the case and the figures were misleading. When a company makes a decision to be one of the only sources of foreclosure reporting in the country they must do so accurately, and not just with false confidence and self-service.  In reports across all media outlets there is no warning, asterisks, or any other cautionary note that reflects the true nature of the data.