MY BAD

Finding that reporters in Wilson, N.C., had dug out numbers of foreclosures over a several-year stretch, I broad-brushed my snark in referring to "actual reporters." I owe apologies to the High Country Press and to its actual reporter, Kathleen McFadden, who dug out the same info for both Watauga & Avery counties back in January.

The local numbers tell a somewhat different story. Although Watauga's number of foreclosures show a general trend upward during the last 6 years, even the peak of 107 foreclosures in 2006 doesn't come up to the high of 1998:

• 1998: 121—higher than the 2006 number
• 1999: 48
• 2000: 43
• 2001: 85
• 2002: 85
• 2003: 107—the same as the 2006 number
• 2004: 94
• 2005: 95
• 2006: 107

The Avery County figures are even less "trendy":

• 1998: 31
• 1999: 14
• 2000: 22
• 2001: 37
• 2002: 56
• 2003: 208
• 2004: 69
• 2005: 41
• 2006: 49

What was up with 2003 in both Avery and Watauga? Fall-out from the first year of the Iraq War?