Ellington

A California-based company that tracks foreclosures, RealtyTrac, reported last week that Mississippi has seen a huge jump in foreclosures last month. The company currently lists 1,893 foreclosed properties in the state, however Forbes reports 755 new actions in June, representing an increase of 74 percent over the previous month.

RealtyTrac has come under fire for overinflating its numbers. In April, ForeclosureResearch.com reported that Colorado enacted a housing bill to collect and report its own statewide foreclosure statistics. The law is in response to a 2007 investigative report by The Seattle Times that said RealtyTrac doubled the state's number of foreclosures.

According to ForeclosureResearch:

The article was just one in a slew of articles that offered somewhat of a public outcry for more accurate figures. The main concern, that the figures being reported by non-governmental, for-profit companies were being used in governmental review, and eventually considered in proposed law to help curb the onslaught of foreclosures.

Last month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution became one of a growing number of media outlets that no longer accepts RealtyTrac's statistics:

When the most frequently quoted source of foreclosure information released its April statistics, it estimated that 3,746 properties in metro Atlanta's five core counties had been slapped with foreclosure sale notices.

But a review of local legal advertisements – the only official source of Georgia foreclosure information – suggested a decidedly different number for April, with 7,462 properties slated for auction on the courthouse steps.

The problem stems from the fact that there is no central database for foreclosure information, either at the federal or the state level, the story continues.

RealtyTrac isn't the only source of foreclosure data, but it's one of the most visible, since it widely circulates its monthly reports. That attention helps drive traffic to the company Web site, which offers subscriptions to access detailed information on properties in foreclosure. Most major news media outlets have used the company's data over the years, as have state and federal government officials and academics.

The Mortgage Bankers Association publishes a quarterly report on delinquent mortgages that is respected by many economists. But the data drills down only to the state level. Other databases rely on credit records and property records.

The results vary widely from source to source. And no source provides the sort of detail that many experts say is desperately needed as foreclosure numbers continue to reach record highs.