Foreclosures either up 24% or down 13% in first quarter of 2009

The media is always up for an exciting headline, so the Associated Press reported the latest foreclosure news from RealtyTrac this way: US foreclosures up 24 percent in 1st quarter.

That's true. But here's the thing: Foreclosures were also down 13% from the fourth quarter of 2008, thanks to temporary moratoriums on foreclosures. So foreclosures were either up double-digits or down double-digits, depending on how you look at it.