Ok, not really, but the headlines covering 2009 foreclosures may as well have purported such a figure. CNNMoney.com offered an article titled, “Record 3 million households hit with foreclosure in 2009.” The article written by Les Christie and published on January 14, 2010 seemingly reports three million foreclosures last year or at least that’s what the headline reads.
Let’s hope visitors to the site at least read through the first paragraph which states, “Almost 3 million homeowners received at least one foreclosure filing during 2009.”
Even more so, let’s …

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 …

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 …

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 …

A couple of years ago RealtyTrac was in some hot water for over-inflating foreclosure statistics for the state of Colorado. According to one Foreclosure Article in The Seattle Times, published online on June 16, 2007, “RealtyTrac reported 54,747 foreclosures last year — one of the highest in the nation. The state’s Division of Housing, however, said the actual number was 28,453 and publicly chastised the firm for inflating numbers.”
The article titled, “Numbers from foreclosure statistics company questioned,” continued by stating the company doubled, even triple-counted foreclosures for a single property.
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 Foreclosure research isn’t the only website/researcher uncovering the discrepancies between foreclosure listings providers and the news publications that report their data.
According to a blog on The Washington Post, author Elizabeth Razzi voices her frustrations with foreclosure reporting. In an article posted on March 16, 2009, titled “How Many Foreclosed or Homeless?” Razzi writes, “One of the biggest frustrations in trying to report about this housing crisis and recession is the lack of reliable numbers on two of its most dire outcomes: foreclosures and homelessness.”
Razzi continues by stating, …

In parts I and II of “The Underbelly of an Online Listing Provider,” Foreclosure Research set out to uncover the truth behind Foreclosure Store’s deceptive façade. Beyond duplicitous listings and charging methods, every factor of the company seems to be wrought with deceptive or unethical tactics.
Take the sign-up page for the free trial for example. At meets the eye, it looks incredibly similar to a competing foreclosure listing site, Foreclosure.com (See photos 1 and 2). The layout and styles are the same and even the text is copied verbatim. In …

Foreclosure statistics have again sprung up across all media outlets. However, unlike recent trends, the headlines for California are claiming dramatic foreclosure declines. Imagine, in a time with economic strain taking precedence in the media, comes an article with a slight glimmer of hope? But is it based on fact?
According to reports from Foreclosure Radar, California foreclosure notices in September dropped significantly compared to rates in August. The statistic comes from one of several articles on the subject, this one titled, “State foreclosures fall dramatically.” The article quotes …

Not too long ago ForeclosureS.com announced that the site offered over 5 million property listings. Even with the current foreclosure frenzy in the media, this number seemed inflated. They also advertised this figure directly on the homepage of the site, where other foreclosure listings companies offer their current listings. As mentioned in a prior post, “Figuring Out the Figures,” ForeclosureS.com now does not offer any current listing numbers anywhere on the site and has removed the “5 million listings” on their home page.

However, I was able to …