U.S. foreclosure activity increased seven percent this past August. According to RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for August 2014, “foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 116,913 U.S. properties in August, an increase of seven percent from the previous month but still down nine percent from a year ago – the smallest decrease in the last 47 consecutive months of year-over-year declines in U.S. foreclosure activity.” The report also shows one in every 1,126 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month. The states with the highest foreclosure rates are Florida (1 in every 400 housing units with a foreclosure filing), Maryland (1 in every 532), Nevada (1 in every 524), New Jersey (1 in every 553), and Georgia (1 in every 582), this past August.

At 51,192 scheduled U.S. property foreclosure auctions during the month, we see an increase of one percent from a year ago but a decrease of one percent from the prior month. This number of scheduled foreclosure auctions increased in 24 states, including Colorado, Oregon, Connecticut, New York, and Oklahoma.

If we break down the current distribution of foreclosures based on the number of active foreclosure homes in the U.S, pre-foreclosures make up 33.7%, scheduled auctions make up 43.8%, and bank repossessions make up 22.5%. Compared to July 2014, the amount of new foreclosure filings is up 12%.

According to Daren Blomquist, the Vice President at RealtyTrac, “The August foreclosure numbers demonstrate that although the foreclosure crisis is well behind us, the messy business of cleaning up the distress lingering from the housing bust continues in many markets. The annual increase in foreclosure auctions — the first since the robo-signing controversy rocked the foreclosure industry back in late 2010 — indicates mortgage services are finally adjusting to the new paradigms for proper foreclosure that have been implemented in many states, whether by legislation or litigation or both.”