ARIZOAN DAILY STAR: Weds., July 30, 2008

Under 1% foreclosures

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: The media need to be ashamed at this fearmongering about foreclosures ("Foreclosures more than double here," July 26). The Star's headline might be accurate in one way, but it clearly twists the statistics to make the housing crisis seem much worse than it really might be.

The article stated that 1 in 148 houses are foreclosed upon, which is a worse rate than the 1 in 224 in a previous study. However, a simple perusal of the math shows that 1 in 148 is a 0.7% rate of foreclosure, up from 0.4% (1 in 224).

What that means is 99.3% of homes are being paid for. Sorry, but a foreclosure rate of still less than 1 percent, to me, does not constitute a "housing crisis."

The media hype machine seems to be working overtime once again.

~ David Woodburn; Publicist, Tucson