RealtyTrac Inc., a California-based financial tracking firm, reported last week that one in 465 homes in the Houston, TX, area had been foreclosed on in March. This number represents a 29 percent increase from foreclosure numbers in February and a 53 percent increase from March of 2009.

Nationwide numbers follow the same trend. One in 352 homes across the United States received a foreclosure filing in March. These 367,056 properties denote a 20 percent increase compared to February’s foreclosures and an 8 percent increase compared to March last year. RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report states that this is the largest number of foreclosures they have tracked since January of 2005.

“Foreclosure activity in the first quarter of 2010 followed a very similar pattern to what we saw in the first quarter of 2009: A shallow trough in January and February followed by a substantial spike in March,” said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

This substantial spike in March has been represented by the final stages of foreclosures in previous years. This year the spike is represented by an aberrant 9 percent quarterly increase in bank repossessions as opposed to the 13 percent quarterly decrease in repossessions seen at this time in previous years.

If you are facing the prospect of a foreclosure filing and need financial advice and legal counsel in how to proceed with a bankruptcy filing, call the New Orleans foreclosure attorneys of Kervin & Young, LLC, at 504-599-5906.