California accounted for nearly 21 percent of the nation's foreclosure activity in the third quarter, with 191,016 properties receiving some kind of notice, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac.
Today's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report says there were 930,437 foreclosure filings – which include default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions – nationwide in the quarter ended Sept. 30. That was a nearly 4 percent increase from the second quarter but a 1 percent decrease from last year's third quarter.
In this year's third quarter, one in every 139 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing.
While things seemingly improved compared with the year-ago period, housing analysts were concerned by September's numbers.
Foreclosure filings were reported on 347,420 U.S. properties last month, up nearly 3 percent from August and 1 percent from September 2009.
A record 102,134 bank repossessions were reported nationwide in September, the first time that surpassed the 100,000 mark in a single month. There were 288,345 bank repossessions in the quarter, also a record.
RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio said lenders were "taking a bite out of the backlog of distressed properties where the foreclosure process was delayed by foreclosure-prevention efforts over the past 20 months.
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