Realty Trac’s accuracy has been called into question numerous times due to the way they count foreclosures, often double counting properties and including commercial filings. Once again, don’t beleive the hype, they want to sell subscriptions to thier service above all. By making the numbers look high, they think more people will pay to see their foreclosures list.

Post from: Hawaii Real Estate Reporter

Hawaii Ranked 15th for Highest Number of Foreclosure Filings

Are you a homeowner in Hawaii facing foreclosure?  Is your loan with Countrywide? 

The State of Hawai`i’s Office of Consumer Protection has reached an agreement with Countrywide Financial Corp. and Bank of America that may help approximately 2,400 Hawai`i homeowners holding subprime or adjustable rate mortgages avoid foreclosure by obtaining modified and affordable loans.

Under this agreement, eligible Hawai`i borrowers will be able to modify the terms of their loans to make monthly payments more affordable, and avoid foreclosure. The modified loan terms will vary according to the circumstances of the borrower. The terms may include an automatic freeze or reduction in interest rates, conversion to fixed-term loans, and refinancing or reduction of principal owed.

The loan modification program will provide total statewide benefits to eligible homeowners in Hawai`i as follows:

• Suspension of Hawaii foreclosures for eligible borrowers with subprime and pay-option adjustable rate loans pending determination of borrower ability to afford loan modifications

• Loan modifications valued at up to $83 million worth of reduced interest payments and, for certain borrowers, reduction of their principal balances .

Post from: Hawaii Real Estate Reporter

Hawaii Foreclosures – Help Is On The Way For Some

“Hawaii ranks 45th in Foreclosures” July 10th Article from Star-Bulletin.

The other is negative:

“Foreclosures up again from last year” Source: July 10th Honolulu Advertiser

What’s very curious is that they are reporting on the exact same set of statistics from a recent survey from Realtytrac.

The Glass Half Full Approach:
Let’s start with the positive one from the Star Bulletin (“Hawaii ranks 45th in Foreclosures”), the accurate one. This is the only article of the two that includes quotes from Realtytrac’s people. It’s encouraging that the writer who actually listened to the report’s author comes away with a more positive outlook.

The Star-Bulletin article states that Hawaii is 45th out of 50 States in the number of foreclosures and that foreclosures in June were down 17% from May. In the article, Realtytrac’s spokesman asserts that foreclosures aren’t a major threat to the market.

Headlines aside, we should take an objective, quantitative look at Hawaii’s foreclosure rate versus a market that is actually suffering. The difference is staggering: In Hawaii we only have 1 foreclosure for every 3,732 households. In Nevada, it is 1 for every 122 households, now that’s ugly!

The Glass is Half Empty Approach:
The dark side has spoken, and this time it’s the Honolulu Advertiser – oh no, foreclosures are up from a year ago! And what’s worse – they are up again. Not just up once, but up again, and again, and again. They had enough room. They could have added some additional ‘agains’. See, being up is not bad enough, being ‘up again’ is much worse. You must understand these things.

The article says that

“Hawaii’s foreclosure count continues what has been a steady rise in troubled mortgages.”

This is not the case. Recall that foreclosures are actually down 17% from May to June. Futhermore, Hawaii foreclosures were down 22% from April to May (Pacific Business News, June 13, 2008).

Fortunately, these numbers suggest a very encouraging trend. Unfortunately, these numbers make it harder for the reporter to tell the simplest, most sensational story-so of course they are omitted from the article, and a lot of readers are left in the dark.

Bottom line, foreclosures are not a big issue in Hawaii. We are consistently near the bottom in the number of foreclosures and they are too few to have an effect on our real estate market.

Post from: Hawaii Real Estate Reporter

Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full? Newspapers Put Opposite Spins on Foreclosure Numbers