With the latest third-quarter figures still in the news, now is a good time for some further scrutinization. Strategically and purposefully, it seems that foreclosure listings companies offer their statistics in varying forms as not to draw any obvious attention to the disparities afflicting the data.

The most recent reports do just that.  An article published on October 10, 2008 in the South Florida Business Journal, uses ForeclosureS.com reported numbers for Florida during the period of September, 2008. The article, titled, “Florida ranks No. 3 for foreclosures,” stated there were 64.2 foreclosure filings per 1,000 households. We agree that Florida does rank high compared to most states, but this figure seems too high relative to other reports in the media.

According to the U.S. Census figures, there are 6,337,929 total households in Florida, which would equal 406,895 filings in the state of Florida. While this may be the number that ForeclosureS.com found, the numbers over at Realty Trac are profoundly different.

In a press release available on the Realty Trac website, the foreclosure listing company reported only 47,956 foreclosure filings in Florida for the month September.

This is a difference of over 350,000 filings from the ForeclosureS.com report! Whether it is access to wrong household data, wrong foreclosure figures or just bad calculations, there seems to be an evident problem.

There was a similar reporting error in a ForeclosureS.com press release dated October 9, 2008 on Market Watch. The release reported that “7.8 of every 1,000 households nationwide faced pre-foreclosure.” The article continues by stating the figure equaled 561,467 homeowners who received a foreclosure filing.

Again, referring back to the U.S. Census bureau (which ForeclosureS.com is using in their calculations), there are 105,480,101 total, nationwide households. However, 7.8 out of every 1,000 households would equal 822,744 foreclosure filings not 561,467. If there were in fact 561,467 foreclosure filings then the statistical representation should be about 5.3 of every 1,000 households received a foreclosure fling nationwide.

While the difference between 5 and 7 is minimal, the difference of over 250,000 is a gross misrepresentation as it relates to total foreclosures nationwide. Readers should be wary when reading foreclosure statistics as they may come in different (or wrong) packages.