Data on foreclosures released by research firms is being questioned. RealtyTrac Inc. is a research company based in California. For home foreclosure statistics, this is the most widely cited source of information. According to recent figures for the Charleston area released by RealtyTrac Inc. foreclosures in the third quarter have almost quadrupled. In the earlier three months, the figure was 1,523. The figure for the third quarter was given as 437. This huge jump in foreclosure figures has led to doubts about the authenticity of the data on which the report is based.
RealtyTrac. Inc is confident only about the data for the third quarter. However it has expressed reservations about data for the previous quarters. According to Daren Blomquist, spokesman for the company, foreclosure information previously was obtained through different sources. The names of the sources could not be disclosed because they were proprietary in nature, said Blomquist. It is only recently that the company is paying someone in the locality to collect the information. According to Blomquist, “… when you’re dealing with 3,100 counties … the data aren’t always perfect”.
County clerks in Berkeley and Dorchester County even today maintain their court information in manila folders. It is only Charleston County where the court system is fully online. In such circumstances, getting foreclosure data for Charleston area sitting in California can be difficult claims Blomquist.
According to Blomquist, when the company assigns someone to collect data for a geographic region, the foreclosure figures normally jump. Non-coverage areas usually show lower foreclosure figures than what it really is. Charleston area used to be a non-coverage area till recently. Hence the figures for the area, when it was non-coverage area, were probably far lower than the true reality. This explains the huge gap between figures for the second and third quarters, according to the company. "In areas where we don’t have coverage, it may look like the foreclosure rate is lower than it actually is," Blomquist said.
The Post and Courier also released data for Charleston. They reported a far more modest rate of increase in the third quarter over the second quarter for Berkely and Dorechester counties than reported by RealtyTrac. Inc. In the second quarter there were 982 foreclosures. In the third quarter there was a 12.7 increase in the number of foreclosures in the area. This is a vastly different from the RealtyTrac. Inc. data.