Foreclosure Research received a comment on a recent article stating that Realty Trac had posted two separate numbers for 2008 foreclosure filings. One number was total filings (3.16 million) the other number, which was not mention in the article, was the number of properties that received a foreclosure filing (2.3 million).
The fact of the matter is why would RealtyTrac have even released a figure that contained duplicate figures? Readers should ask themselves, what is the point of knowing that one home received two foreclosure flings versus just one?
This information is …

Some more conflicting numbers are out this week along with a sprinkle of blatantly wrong information. Foreclosure statistics for 2008 continue to make national headlines. Last week’s Foreclosure Research article focused on foreclosure fillings while this week’s article will take a glimpse at actual foreclosures across the country in 2008.
One article out of BusinessWeek offered some foreclosure statistics from ForeclosureS.com. According to the article, “the foreclosure process was begun on 2 million” homes but there were “over one million lost homes,” or actual repossessions.
However, according to an Associated …

The yearly reports for 2008 are beginning to roll through. The various 2008 foreclosure analyses are looking less like reports and more like statistical conjectures. As Foreclosure Research has reported in the past, every foreclosure listing company has their own set of data and their own data gathering methods. Many times monthly reports show great differences but in light of a year’s synopsis the variance is immense.
One article from Market Watch titled, “U.S. foreclosure filings in 2008 rose 81% from 2007,” offered data from RealtyTrac. According to the article, …

With 2009 now upon us, let us review the past year and see how the real estate market and the media reporting it have evolved from day one.
July 2008: the birth of Foreclosure Research
Key Points:
-Lack of articles publishing current decreases in foreclosures but rather focusing on increases from prior years.
-RealtyTrac reports 3% decrease in foreclosures from May to June, ForeclosureS.com reports 5.35% increase from May to June.
- No “current foreclosure” statistics available on RealtyTrac or ForeclosureS.com, making it nearly impossible to confirm their reported statistics.
August 2008
Key Points:
-Article reports conflicting numbers …