Not so sure about foreclosures

RealtyTrac, a source of pre-foreclosure and foreclosure statistics, reported that Colorado had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation in December and for nine of 12 months in 2006.

Meanwhile, a review by the Colorado state Division of Housing found that "foreclosure numbers have been exaggerated by some organizations providing foreclosure data on the state," the Rocky Mountain News reported.

The state reported that there were about 1 in 58 households in foreclosure in 2006 compared to 1 in 75 in 2005, according to the news report, while Realtytrac found that the state experienced a rate of one foreclosure for every 33 households in 2006.

The Northern Colorado Business Report publication reported that RealtyTrac may have counted the same properties several times.

"Because of the transparency of Colorado's process, and the ease of retrieving records, RealtyTrac often flags multiple records on a single foreclosure case," the publication reported.

RealtyTrac marketing vice president Rick Sharga acknowledged in the article that the company may double-count or triple-count properties in some cases, though he said the company uses the same data-collection methods in Colorado that it does for other states. "On an apples-to-apples basis, we don't do anything differently in Colorado than elsewhere. It's a matter of getting more records and more efficiency in delivering them in Colorado," he stated.

The blog for Foreclosure.com, another provider of foreclosure statistics, recognized the potential for miscalculations in foreclosure data and reported that Foreclosure.com "made a strategic decision (in October) to not release monthly foreclosure statistics." The company stated in the blog item, "Now that the media is saturated with wild and unsubstantiated numbers -- 'doom and gloom, the sky is falling,' sells -- more than ever before, it validates our decision to take a step back and reevaluate how to proceed going forward. Fortunately, the media and local governments have started to scrutinize foreclosure numbers rather than accept them at face value." (See Inman News report on "Stats, lies and real estate.")

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.