US Foreclosure Activity Rises for 2nd Straight Month

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - U.S. foreclosure activity jumped in August for the second consecutive month as banks started the process on more properties and scheduled more housing auctions, industry firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Overall, 116,913 properties were at some stage of the foreclosure process, which includes foreclosure notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, the group said.

That pushed overall activity up 7 percent from July, it said. From a year ago, foreclosure activity was down 9 percent.

Lenders started the foreclosure process on about 55,000 properties in August, up 12 percent from July, but unchanged from a year ago. It was the second consecutive month in which foreclosure starts were up month-over-month.

A total of 51,192 properties were set for foreclosure auctions last month, a 1 percent drop from July but up 1 percent from a year ago, ending a 44-month streak of annual decreases.

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