It's always fascinating to see the different ways people use RealtyTrac's foreclosure data. For instance, there are a plethora of blogs such as The Housing Bubble and Northern New Jersey Real Estate Bubble that use the rising foreclosure numbers shown by RealtyTrac's data to support their theory of a real estate bubble about to burst. Many of these bloggers take the time to drill down to the RealtyTrac data in their area and display that to their readers.

One of the best reads among the bubble blog genre is Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking, which regularly uses RealtyTrac data to track how a "property flipper in trouble" has fallen into foreclosure on several investment properties. And of course I like what this blogger, ocrenter, had to say in a blog post yesterday regarding a Sacramento Bee story about exploding housing inventory. The highlighted one street where seven homes are listed for sale, but missed the fact that there are three pre-foreclosures on the same street. Ocrenter wrote:

"You think seven homes for sale on one street is bad, what about the Real Story of three pre-foreclosures on one street?!! Here we have the reporter interviewing a Realtor and getting the standard picture of homes just oozing equity. Yet, the story of homeowners drowning in debt from multiple refinancings and oversized mortgage from the price run-up is completely missed.

"Tip for the Sac Bee reporter Mr. Wasserman: sign up for a 7 day free trial of RealtyTrac and look it up!"