On the upside, while foreclosures are up from previous years, many states have seen consecutive months of decreased foreclosure rates. Some experts say recent legislation, specifically the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program, has played a significant role in the latest figures.
The program offers homeowners with mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the option to refinance at more affordable rates or more affordable payment schedules. The program is back by $75 billion in tax payer funds.
However, the billion dollar question may be “is it working?” According …

According to a recent article published in the Los Angeles Times, an assistant economics professor identified a mysterious charge that stemmed from the foreclosure listings site, RealtyTrac. UCLA Assistant Professor Maria Casanova discovered a $44.95 charge eight months after she canceled her RealtyTrac subscription.
Only through further investigation involving her bank did Casanova discover the charge stemmed from the RealtyTrac registration, where she unwittingly hit an orange “continue” button. According to a RealtyTrac representative the continue button was for an additional product for a completely separate company, Real Estate Promoter.
The …

While browsing foreclosure data on Zillow.com, a property came up with the following comment in the Q&A section: “Why is the same house listed for sale for $2,500.00 on RealtyTrac.”
The property on Zillow was a Foreclosure.com property listed at $39,900. See picture below.

With further investigation, the property, located at 145 Stoneybrook Road in Pacolet South Carolina 29373 was in fact listed on both Foreclosure.com and RealtyTrac.com priced at $39,900 and $2,500 respectively.
See RealtyTrac below

See Foreclosure.com below

In order to find out which service was correct, Foreclosure Research contacted …

It is evident that ForeclosureResearch is not the only one with concerns over certain foreclosure reporting companies The Housing Assistance Council, a Washington DC non-profit, has also expressed concerns over foreclosure data in certain areas of the country. Such concerns were recently released in an October 2009 HAC report, “What is the housing foreclosure situation in rural America?”
The report specifically describes concerns over RealtyTrac figures. Here is a snippet of the report:
RealtyTrac presents data for approximately 2,200 counties across the United States. This excludes roughly 900 counties, most of …

It has been a little over a year since the state of Colorado took foreclosure reporting into its own hands. Last month the state released its first yearly foreclosure report based on the numbers of its own collection methods. Colorado was the first state to break away from a reliance on the many times inaccurate reporting of RealtyTrac.
The only snag seemed to be reports comparing August and September 2009 rates with the prior year. According to the foreclosure data report, “the large difference in foreclosure filing totals between …

It looks like the foreclosure giant RealtyTrac has laid off a considerable number of employees within the last month. According to Inman News “RealtyTrac has trimmed its workforce by nearly 30 employees and is moving away from some media partnerships.” The layoffs comprise roughly a quarter of its current workforce.
According to Hitwise, an online metrics company, the company has exhibited a steady decrease in traffic over the last few months. The company also moved down in the rankings to 18 from 10 for overall online real estate popularity.
In the …

Despite the fact that most foreclosure listing companies reported a nationwide decrease in foreclosures and default filings, the media offered headlines donned with the usual negative perspective.
RealtyTrac seems to be the only major listing company that offered statistics for August. The foreclosure listing company reported a 1 percent decrease in filings with a 13 percent decrease in repossessions. ForeclosureS.com didn’t offer a report for the month presumably because they found an increase in fillings, as they have historically reported larger number of properties in foreclosure.
Here are some of …

It looks like RealtyTrac and Foreclosures.com are getting closer to similar reporting results but have yet to get it down to a science. The most recent statistics for Clark County Nevada came to only a 6.5% disparity compared to past differences of up to 100%. While the percent difference was closer than usual, the difference in the total properties varied by 13%.
It’s also getting harder and harder to catch. While RealtyTrac reports foreclosure flings, which include both default notices and REO properties, ForeclosureS.com reports them separately. Also, many times …

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 …

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 …