It looks like the foreclosure fishermen are at it again. There is no telling just how big… the foreclosure crisis is getting. The size and method of catch all depend on which statistical fisherman you ask.

RealtyTrac is just one purveyor of such foreclosure fish stories. Their figures have been up for debate for several years now. In the most recent press release the foreclosure rate per household left out one major piece of information. According to the release titled, “Foreclosure Activity Increases 9 Percent in First Quarter,” the company states that “one in every 159 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter. However, this is incorrect.

According to the beginning of the press release, RealtyTrac explains that the Q1 report includes “foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.” As has been exposed in the past, many of these foreclosure properties can have up to 3 filings. For example, one home first receives a default notice, then receives and auction notice; and finally the home is figured in with the REO repossessions.

Considering this, RealtyTrac should have offered the following statement: one in every 159 U.S. housing units received [AT LEAST one (more like two)] foreclosure filings during the quarter.

Upon further analysis, the entire statement still contains falsities because the filings would be much less if they were based on per single household foreclosures.

The important number continues to be REOs, actual bank repossessions, which were only 190,543. Considering this figure combined with U.S. Census figures, the more accurate and pertinent statement would be as follows: 1 in 671 housing units were foreclosed during the first quarter of 2009.

There is another error in the report when RealtyTrac mentions how many properties received the fillings. In the release the company states, “Foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 803,489 properties.” This should actually read, 803,489 filings were reported on x amount of properties. Not vice versa.