Observations:
20% of RealtyStore.com listings sampled appeared on foreclosure.com as “inactive,” while the listing on RealtyStore were either “new” or “active.” Many times this signifies stale or outdated information.

Example 1:
113 Viaduct Pescara, American Canyon, CA 94503 is listed as “active” on RealtyStore.com. See image below:

The same property on Foreclosure.com is listed as “inactive” and with the address: 113 Via Pescara- which also happens to be the correct address. See image below:

When cross referenced with the listing broker’s web site, the property located at 113 Via Pescara (or Viaduct Pescara) was no longer in the active listing section.

Example 2:
240 E 76th St Apt 5a, New York, NY 10021 is listed as an auction property on RealtyStore.com. See image below:

The same property on Foreclosure.com is listed as a foreclosure- post auction- property. Meaning the home that is listed on RealtyStore is not longer up for auction and is now owned by the bank.

While perusing through Yahoo! Real Estate one particular property stood out. A 3/2 home on a 5-acre property in Fort Myers, FL for a steal of $100,000. The property was a preforeclosure listed by RealtyTrac.com, but a buyer would have to read the description to see that the home was in fact a Lis Pendens notice and not a typical foreclosure. What stood out front and center in this particular listing was the price, as shown in the image above. This raised a red flag for a couple of reasons. One, many preforeclosures do not have prices because technically they are not for sale. Two, the priced seemed quite low even for a distressed home.

Upon further research I found the property listed for sale on the Gulf Coast Associates Realtors Web site. According to the Web site, the property was listed on the MLS for $365,000 as a short sale. In a short sale, the price listed is usually significantly lower than the amount owed on the loan. That is at least a $265,000 difference in price between the two listings. See image below for the listing details.

The listing on Yahoo! is a little deceiving seeing as they have listed what seems to be only one mortgage amount as the price. In order to compare I checked rival foreclosure.com to see if they list the preforeclosures in a similar fashion.

The same preforeclosure property was in fact listed on Foreclosure.com. The first thing I noticed on the search results for preforeclosures in any given county was that none of the properties list a price (as opposed to RealtyTrac search results which do list prices). As mentioned previously, that is actually more of an accurate way to display the properties as to not lead to the confusion found on the Neal Road property. Once on the property details page, under “loan information” users will see specifically a 1st mortgage amount for $100,000 (refer to image below). This information is helpful because the user knows that there is at least one mortgage and the site does not list that 1st mortgage amount as the price.

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 the agent, D. Fowler, who verified the correct price at $39,900.

In conclusion, the property listed on foreclosure.com contained the more accurate information of the two.

One of the main complaints within the foreclosure listing arena is a lack of accurate data. It’s good to see that at least one company offers accurate information.

In the midst of foreclosure reports touting the worst of the real estate market meltdown, one article seemed to stray away from the pack. Published on March 2, 2009 on The New York Times Web site, the article headline reads, “Foreclosure Rates Aren’t Really That High…”

While many would say otherwise, the fact that the article was such a departure from the usual doom and gloom warranted a further look. According to the article by Catherine Rampell, a new study out of the University of Virginia states that foreclosures are not as rampant as one may assume.

An expert from the article reads:

“A new study takes issue with the media narrative that foreclosures are dangerously widespread. The paper’s authors, William Lucy and Jeff Herlitz at the University of Virginia, examined foreclosure rates in every state, 35 metropolitan areas and 236 counties, and they found that 62 percent of foreclosures in 2008 were in the four states mentioned above.”

Those four states include Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona. The article continues, “[California] may have had only 10 percent of the nation’s housing units, but it had 34 percent of the nation’s foreclosures in 2008.”

According to the study, homes that people were purchasing in California at the peak of the market were, “quite expansive” compared to the homebuyer’s income. In Los Angeles County 20% of all mortgage holders were utilizing at least 50 percent of their household income for housing related expenses. The new norm for housing costs, stated by the Obama administration, should be below 30% of household income.

Another interesting aspect of the article is that while the authors were questioning some media reports, readers were questioning the authors, in respect to their seemingly conflicting foreclosure figures.

Here is an excerpt of the author’s response:
“Foreclosure data are difficult to compare from one source to another… These processes may be interrupted by delinquencies being paid, changes in lenders’ enforcement policies, or legislation requiring delays in foreclosure proceedings. The same property may be listed multiple times (Olick 2007).”

According to the article, the differing data comes from two foreclosure listing companies. One for which the authors used as the more credible source, and another listing company.

“RealtyTrac’s data for foreclosure proceedings (2.3 million) more than doubled the foreclosure rate of foreclosure.com in 2008. But RealtyTrac reported “more than 860,000 properties were actually repossessed by lenders” in 2008 (Associated Press 2009). Foreclosure.com’s website said “home foreclosures jumped 64% to nearly one million homes in 2008.” In our study, we used foreclosure.com data for states and counties, usually from November 2008. The U.S. number of foreclosures and preforeclosures in that source was 1,009,485…”

The differing numbers makes sense as Realty Trac reports multiple listings on a single property, which has been reported by Foreclosure Research in the past.