# Another example of shocking reporting on the arrears problem



## Brendan Burgess (30 Nov 2013)

From today's Irish Examiner 

*25,000 lose ownership of their homes in six months as banks tackle arrears*



> *More than 25,000 people* who were in arrears *lost their homes between  April and September*, according to the latest figures from the Central  Bank.
> 
> By the end of September, the banks had dealt with 47,087 customers in  arrears, which resulted in 21,177 restructured mortgages and 25,910 in  loss of ownership.
> 
> Loss of ownership did not mean that 25,910 homes had been repossessed  over that period. Rather, it includes mortgage holders who have  surrendered their properties or agreed to a voluntary sale of their  homes, as well as banks issuing legal proceedings in order to repossess  the homes of owners in arrears.



The article is very badly written and contradicts itself a few times.  But it's very clearly reporting that 25,000 lost their homes.


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## Brendan Burgess (30 Nov 2013)

Here are the actual figures from the Central Bank 



 |Q2|Q3| Total 
Homes repossessed on foot of a court order| 63|76|139
Homes surrendered and abandoned| 160|133|293
Total|||432
Does anyone know where the 25,910 figure came from?


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## Brendan Burgess (2 Dec 2013)

Séamus Coffey has posted about this as well. 

http://economic-incentives.blogspot.ie/2013/11/reporting-mortgage-crisis.html

which makes the following particularly good point 



> Today’s _Irish Times_ details a survey  which shows massive differences between public opinion and facts.   Judging by these front pages it is not difficult to see how such  perceptions get a foothold.


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## Brendan Burgess (2 Dec 2013)

Ok, the 25,910 figure comes from a presentation made to journalists on Friday

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?p=1363434

It's the total for PDH's and Buy to lets

Brendan


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## nec (2 Dec 2013)

shocking


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## Brendan Burgess (2 Dec 2013)

Apparently this Irish Examiner report was covered on the RTE radio news "What it says in the Papers" on Saturday morning. 

I can't find the podcast on the RTE website. Can anyone else figure out how it works and provide a link? 

Brendan


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## RainyDay (2 Dec 2013)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Séamus Coffey has posted about this as well.
> 
> http://economic-incentives.blogspot.ie/2013/11/reporting-mortgage-crisis.html
> 
> ...



Has anyone found the detailed report of the survey on the Times website? I can see the reports about how foolish we all are, but not the details of the underlying survey


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