Foreclosure Research was one of the first online publications to report that RealtyTrac numbers had yet to show much improvement from previous years’ allegations of inaccuracy.

There have been a whole slew of news articles pin-pointing current data discrepancies from the listing provider. The first of these coming from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published on June 21, 2009, titled “Foreclosure numbers don’t add up.” Author Carrie Teegardin assessed that RealtyTrac actually under reported foreclosure notices for the month of April by almost 4,000 filings, a disparity of nearly 100 percent.

The AJC concluded the difference following an analysis of newspaper records for five metro Atlanta counties. Because Georgia is a non-judicial state for foreclosures, there are no court records on the proceedings.

The article offered an excerpt from a local foreclosure expert, who described Realty Trac’s method as “not scientifically rigorous.”

Another issue that has been noted by Foreclosure Research in the past is the lack of coverage in rural areas. Teegardin notes that in Georgia, Realty Trac “reported that April’s foreclosure tally represented a 21 percent increase over the previous year. But the company made no adjustment for the fact that it collected foreclosure data in about 100 of Georgia’s 159 counties last year but expanded to statewide coverage this year.”

Daren Blomquist responded by stating, “We don’t believe it makes any significant difference in the percentage change,” regarding the tallying of additional counties.

If this were the case, let’s do some quick calculations under this supposition.

According to the most recent report 1 out of 377 homeowners in Georgia received at least 1 foreclosure notice in May. You could then apply this figure to the areas that are not counted or at least were not counted last year.

Sample average for rural populations in Georgia*: 13,557. 35 foreclosures per county times 59 counties not counted, equal an additional 2,121 foreclosure filings per month.

April 2008
7,136 Notice of trustee sales plus 2,050 REOs, plus an additional, estimated 2,121 = 11,307 total.

April 2009
7,809 Notice of trustee sales plus 3,712 REOs equals a total of 11,521

Considering this information, Georgia foreclosures only increased 1 percent from April 2008 to April 2009, not 21 percent. If you ask me, this is a very ’significant change’ and perhaps this article can serve as a lesson on how the company can improve upon its scientific rigor in the future.

*Sampling average taken from counties with less than 25,000 in population.

Looking back on the last six months of 2009, foreclosures have seen their share of increases, decreases and record highs- or at least depending on who you ask. This inconsistency leaving the country to wonder what lies ahead for the economy. Many economists and real estate experts predict foreclosures will increase to highs greater than seen in years prior, while others predict a softening.

One thing is certain. The media has made it quite apparent that the worst is yet to come, highlighting reports of heightening foreclosure filings, or notices of default. What hasn’t been reported is the fact that REOs, bank repossessions, foreclosures, fully-defaulted properties, and all other variations of the word have decreased over the last nine months.

This is a great sign. While it is unknown whether one factor is directly correlated to the decrease in actual foreclosures, most likely it is a combination of all efforts.

In homage to president Obama, let Foreclosure Research be the first to announce “there is change” coming to the real estate market.

More Q2 reports of apparent foreclosure records are hitting the media, with some of the most misguided reporting seen yet. Surprisingly, the particular article under scrutiny comes from Reuters, one of the most respected news wires in the world.

The article titled, “U.S. foreclosures jump to record high,” written by Lynn Adler, is a prefect example of the media’s tendency to report on “doom and gloom” or worse yet, give heed to more dramatic suppositions.

The headline, “U.S. foreclosures jump to record high” leaves out a rather important fact. According to the article the record comes from an increased amount of foreclosure filings- or default notices. As Foreclosure Research continues to point out, these filings should not be considered FORECLOSURES. The title makes a blatant error of this.

What is worse is the fact that four paragraphs down where the low-priority information is located, comes the most important observation of all; that “bank repossessions, know as real-estate owned or REOs, fell on a monthly and annual basis to the lowest level since March 2008.” So perhaps a more accurate, less polluted headline would have read, “Foreclosures (the proper use of the word) decreased to lowest levels since March 2008.”

Another interesting observation is how the statement expands on all the synonyms of REO except for its most pertinent one- FORECLOSURES.

The Plea:
A note to all reporters; given the state of the economy please be more accurate when reporting on foreclosures. Also, be sure to inform yourselves on the foreclosure process and the meanings of all its word associations. Most importantly, try using the good news in the headline for once.