Thursday, August 14, 2008

NJ Schizophrenic Housing Data (Or is RealtyTrac Comparing Apples and Oranges)

This is a follow-up to our earlier post here. Notice the numbers from The Record as provided from RealtyTrac are -

One in every 751 households in New Jersey was in some stage of foreclosure in July.
However just last month in our post here we note from Bloomberg this number for New Jersey also cited as from RealtyTrac -

New Jersey filings rose 140 percent. One in every 201 households in the state received notice, the 12th-highest rate in the U.S.
The one in 751 number for July is at some stage of foreclosure. The one in 201 number is for the second quarter (April to June) also at some stage of foreclosure. The foreclosure process has a lengthy time line. Wonder why such a large discrepancy between the numbers?

Here are some other numbers from RealtyTrac -

The number of foreclosure filings in New Jersey jumped 140 percent from April to June to more than 17,000, according to RealtyTrac.
The we have these numbers -
The state had 4,622 filings -- a mix of default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
From what we can tell ReatyTrac numbers quarterly numbers are just April, May and June data added up. There is no provisions for the different states having different foreclosure processes. States requiring more foreclosure submissions will show higher foreclosure rates. There also seems no provisions for counting the same property show up as multiple data-points therefore again skewing the numbers.

Interesting. It seems as if RealtyTrac may be comparing apples and oranges for the state statistics. They also be comparing double and triple counted apples with oranges. Very Interesting.

Update - We know what RealtyTrac Report Methodology states and are working on a post scrutinizing some of the past data to get a better sense of New Jersey numbers and how they are portrayed. Hopefully we will have this up later today or early tomorrow.

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