Dodd’s foreclosure math: 8,100 filings per day

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If you were listening to CNN today, you heard Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut (pictured) trot out a pretty ominous statistic: ‘In the month of April,’ he said, ‘8,100 filings for foreclosure occurred every single day in the month of April. The previous month it was between 7,000 and 8,000.’

What the senator is saying is true, but it’s a tiny bit misleading, so I’ll clarify: That’s 8,100 foreclosure filings -- including notices of default -- accross America per day in April. By my math, the number of actual foreclosures in April was much smaller, roughly 1,816 per day across the country.

From CNN Money’s coverage of RealtyTrac’s April foreclosure data: ‘Some 243,353 households, nearly one in 519, received a foreclosure filing during April, according to the U.S. Foreclosure Market Report from RealtyTrac, an online marketplace that tracks foreclosed properties. That was up 4% from March, and surpassed the record of 239,851 set in August 2007. ... RealtyTrac’s measure of foreclosure filings includes notices of default, auction sales and bank repossessions. According to the report, 54,574 were fully repossessed by banks in April.’

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Photo Credit: Bloomberg News