In many foreclosure news articles readers will see a whole slew of figures representing the data collected from various foreclosure listing companies. However, rarely will you see a cautionary note, or asterisks in this case, to forewarn readers that the number may require further information or that there is a considerable omission relating to the information.

There are however several asterisks in the latest report issued by Realty Trac. Their September and third quarter 2008 figures are filled with asterisks. Most are denoted next to the “% change” from that specific period to that of 2007. The footnote for the asterisks reads, ” * Actual increase may not be as high due to data collection changes or improvements.”

The following states have asterisks next to the percent change from Q3 2007: District of Columbia, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and South Carolina. One would think a note such as “actual increase may not be as high,” directly from the source of the data would deter reporters from utilizing these figures, but that proves false.

Take an article from the Washington Business Journal for example. The article titled, “D.C. – area foreclosures jump,” published on October 23, 2008, offers figures directly from the report released by Realty Trac. The article states specifically that, “foreclosures in D.C. more than quadrupled to 1,330 compared to the third quarter 2007.” However, if the percent change is inaccurate as the report’s asterisk suggests, then foreclosures did not quadruple. In fact, they may be significantly less. The more accurate take on the report would have been just to report the non-asterisk figure of 1,330. However, that number is not ominous as a quadrupling of foreclosures.

While there is an asterisk on the Realty Trac report, at least for Washington D.C., there are no asterisks, or footnotes that would indicate this important omission of information. This could certainly be classified as false reporting.