Foreclosure starts fell on annual basis in August

LOS ANGELES — The evolution of the U.S. foreclosure crisis is increasingly diverging along state lines.

On a national level, fewer homes were placed on the foreclosure track last month than in August last year, when they hit a 17-year high, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

At the same time, so-called foreclosure starts increased almost exclusively in states like Florida and New York, where the courts must sign off on foreclosures, the firm said.

Conversely, in many so-called non-judicial states, like California and Arizona, the number of foreclosure starts declined versus August last year.

The pace of homes entering the foreclosure process is expected to decline gradually, barring another severe economic shock that sends the slowly rebounding housing market into a tailspin, experts say. But that decline is likely to continue playing out unevenly, in part because of the differing approaches to handling foreclosures from state to state.