How Many Foreclosures Are On Your Block? You Might Be Shocked.

(MoneyWatch)  How many foreclosures are on your block? Here's the short answer: A lot.

But some officials are wondering if the foreclosure problem is actually a lot bigger than it has been portrayed. In Georgia, the Atlanta Journal Constitution recently surveyed all of the foreclosure legal ads that had been published and came up with an eye-popping number.

According to the AJC, the number of foreclosed homes slated to be sold in April on the courthouse steps was 7,462. According to RealtyTrac, considered to be the most reliable of the companies that collect and sell foreclosure date, the number is only 3,746.

That's 4,000 missing foreclosures for one metropolitan area. Multiply the missing foreclosure factor over the entire country, and you could be talking about more than a 500,000 extra foreclosed homes that are unaccounted for.

So who's right? No one really knows. The federal government doesn't collect data on foreclosures, nor does the state of Georgia. Across the country, states have different ways of classifying the information, but no one agency seems to be tracking the actual number of foreclosures. In fact, according to a RealtyTrac spokesperson, the federal government and state governments access RealtyTrac data because they don't have their own information.

RealtyTrac has faced questions in the past about its numbers, but maintains they are accurate. The difference in the numbers could be explained because RealtyTrac doesn't count a foreclosure sale notice if one had previously been given for the same property. The company feels that would be "double counting" the numbers, as RealtyTrack's Rick Sharga has told me several times.

But since a lot of public policy is changing based on how many homes are in foreclosure - not to mention a fortune in public funds being spent - wouldn't it make sense to know the real number?