RealtyTrac reports foreclosures are up, but not everyone agrees

RealtyTrac recently reported that foreclosures jumped in January across the country due to a 55% jump in bank repossessions, but some are questioning the real estate information firm's data.

RealtyTrac recently reported that repossessions spiked in January across the country, but not everyone agrees with the real estate information firm.

According to RealtyTrac data, foreclosure filings were reported on 119,888 properties nationwide in January—a 5% increase compared to December—and filings increased due to a 55% jump in bank repossessions, which hit a 15-month high in January.

The total of repossessed homes is up 23% compared to a year ago; 37,292 properties were repossessed nationwide.

Vice president of RealtyTrac Daren Blomquist reported that “foreclosure auctions and REOs are coming off somewhat artificially low levels from last year and are still far below the highs reached during the worst of the foreclosure crisis back in 2009 and 2010.”

However, Arizona industry professionals are not digesting this data as easily. Arizona State University housing expert Michael Orr and other local real estate executives are disagreeing with the data at hand for Arizona, according to the Phoenix Business Journal.

Orr reported there were 827 notices of trustee sales and 369 trustee deeds for foreclosures in January in Maricopa County. He also said that this data has decreased from December 2014, as well as a year ago.

"The RealtyTrac report stated foreclosures increased more than 100% from December 2014 to January 2015. However, numbers from Maricopa County actually show a 6% decrease of foreclosures during that time period," said The Rose Law Group’s Reporter news website, which also questioned the reliability of RealtyTrac’s numbers.

RealtyTrac and its research have broader constraints when it comes to regions so that may be why differences in data may arise. They incorporated data from Maricopa and Pinal counties in their Phoenix area numbers. They counted all the properties in foreclosure or repossession and divide by the total units in a county or state, according to the Phoenix Business Journal.

RealtyTrac also reported jumps in foreclosures in other states, like California, in their January data.