According to a revealing article in the Hartford Courant, RealtyTrac “radically” revised its total Connecticut foreclosure filings for the month of June. The article published on August 15, 2009, written by Kenneth R. Gosselin, states that the company first reported an 80 percent decrease in foreclosure filings when actually there was an increase of 31.5 percent.

The original numbers were revised due to further investigation by Courant reporters following the surprisingly low level of filings originally reported by the foreclosure data company.

RealtyTrac first reported only 56 foreclosure filings while the revision claimed 991. That’s a head-turning difference of 1,670 percent.

In the article Darren Blomquist, a RealtyTrac spokesperson, admitted that the subscription-based company was having trouble with data collection in Connecticut. Yet it seems the company still continues to issue formal reports on Connecticut and other coverage-lacking areas.

In the past RealtyTrac has admitted to inaccurate data in some rural areas, specifically counties with less than 25,000 in population, but according to the US Census, all of Connecticut’s counties have well over 100,000 in population.

Which begs the question, “is it really just rural areas? Or perhaps smaller, less-important states are also denied the accurate reporting they deserve?

There really is only one solution, and that is to have some governmental control over foreclosure statistics in the media. If this were the case, at least the government grasps the concept of equal representation among the fifty states of America. In addition, the government would be less concerned about selling subscriptions in heavily foreclosed areas, which is obviously the main focus of the foreclosure listing company in question.

The first half of 2009 foreclosure reports continues to trickle in. Coming as no surprise to readers of Foreclosure Research, the reports have their variances in outcomes- some of these variances greater than others.

The latest report is comprised of figures from ForeclosureS.com who is no stranger to the media spotlight. The report was published in the Orlando Business Journal on July 9, 2009 titled, “Fla. Ranks No. 2 in foreclosures.”

According to the article, ForeclosureS.com reported 256,133 filings between January 2009 and June 2009. As for bank repossessions, ForeclosureS.com reported 53,548.

Meanwhile, according to the recent Foreclosure Research post, http://foreclosureresearch.com/2009/07/florida-foreclosures-the-real-breakdown/ “Florida Foreclosures: The Real Breakdown,” RealtyTrac reported a much different figure. According to their first-half of 2009 report, there were 268,064 filings and only 35,414 bank repossessions, or actual foreclosures. The difference? A whopping 18,134 homes, or a 51% deviation. A breakdown of the figures can be seen below.

Florida: January- June

Repossessions
RealtyTrac: 35,414
Foreclosures.com: 53,548

Difference: 18,134
51% deviation

Foreclosure Filings
RealtyTrac: 268,064
ForeclosureS.com: 256,133

You be the judge of what is going on here. Are they pulling these numbers out of their hats for the press in order to drive people to their websites? It looks like that way to us at Foreclosure Research.