Dis-Mapped: Where Are the Rural Foreclosures?

by Shannon Moriarty

Published October 10, 2008 @ 12:05PM PST

Looking at this map, you'd assume that the Midwest, South, and rural West are largely unaffected by the foreclosure crisis. Those areas are mostly gray, so there must not be any foreclosures... right?

Actually, no. RealtyTrac, a California-based research company, fails to track foreclosures in over 900 counties across America (out of 3,141 - that's nearly 30% of the country). So the foreclosure crisis is being grossly underestimated in states with large rural populations, like South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia. 

This is especially alarming since RealtyTrac is the main source of foreclosure data for the media to shape public opinion and for policy-makers to, well, govern our nation. 

In an interview with NPR yesterday, Rick Sharge of RealtyTrac admitted that their methodology isn't perfect. Since much of the action is happening in large, urban areas, they simply don't have the means to track counties with fewer than 25,000 people. 

This past July (back when our 401Ks were intact and we had never heard of Sarah Palin... sigh), Congress passed the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008. Part of the bill required HUD to do a one-time assessment of foreclosure rates in each state, thereby forcing them to count every state for this one-time assessment. HUD ranked Mississippi among the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates. RealtyTrac, however, ranks it near the bottom.

Until HUD is required to continue gathering statistics on these rural areas, RealtyTrac will continue to be the source of regular foreclosure updates for policy-makers. And, judging from this NPR interview, their tracking methodology is unlikely to change.

In the meantime, don't let these color-coded maps fool you.