Social networking site, Twitter has been receiving quite a bit of media coverage over the last couple of months. Most notably with the Iranian presidential conflict where Twitter was the only means to deliver the latest news in the area. Now it seems Twitter is here to stay, with ubiquitous ‘tweets’ filtering into our daily lives.
This being said, Foreclosure Research has decided to jump on board. Recently we added the twitter icon and link to the navigation bar on the Web site. You don’t have to be …

A recent study has emerged profiling homeowners who have voluntarily defaulted on their mortgages. According to the study from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, as many as 1 in 4 homeowners walked away from their homes, “despite the ability to make mortgage payments.”
The study titled, “Moral and Social Constraints to Strategic Defaults,” found that declining home values was a significant factor in increased defaults, surprisingly much more influential than that of job loss.
Another interesting finding was that as defaults increased, so did the likelihood that a homeowner would …

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 …

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 …

Along the same vein as prior articles on responsible reporting in the media, there seems to be more awareness towards media outlets touting gloom and doom figures. The people are beginning to publicly question the backings of all these new reports.
The latest of these articles comes out of the editorial/opinion column in the Outlook, a local paper in Oregon. Published on April 8, 2009, local realtor Jon Hull voices his opinion in his letter, “Responsible reporting vs. doom and gloom.” In the letter, Hull describes how journalism has “helped …

It looks like the December foreclosure figures were overshadowed by reports of an 81 percent increase in 2008. Just a quick analysis shows that those figures should have been given a little more priority by media outlets as many states reflected a decrease or very slight increases in filings for the month, a great sign in the midst of a bedraggled economy.
In fact, there was only a trickle of articles mentioning a decrease for the month of December, at least according to recent headlines. Most continued to report increases …

With third quarter reports still trickling in, foreclosure research agencies continue to take varying approaches to how their foreclosure numbers are reported. One method is no less confusing that the next, especially when compounded with reporter bias.
Take the latest foreclosure statistics article published on December 5, 2008, from the website, CNNMoney.com. The article is titled, “Foreclosures soar 76% to record 1.35 million,” and is written by Tami Luhby. The article offers a totally different approach to presenting foreclosure statistics by providing the ‘default rate’. The ‘default rate’ is not to …

With the latest third-quarter figures still in the news, now is a good time for some further scrutinization. Strategically and purposefully, it seems that foreclosure listings companies offer their statistics in varying forms as not to draw any obvious attention to the disparities afflicting the data.
The most recent reports do just that.  An article published on October 10, 2008 in the South Florida Business Journal, uses ForeclosureS.com reported numbers for Florida during the period of September, 2008. The article, titled, “Florida ranks No. 3 for foreclosures,” stated there were …

The Second quarter foreclosure reports continue to roll in with the latest figures from Realty Trac released. One general statistic released by Realty Trac, a foreclosure reporting company based out of Irvine, California, has been appearing on hundreds of newspaper articles across the country.
According to all articles and taken directly from the Realty Trac foreclosure activity report, “one in every 171 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the quarter.”
Performing calculations and some further investigation, one could take the same information and present it in a way more favorable …