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IRVINE, CA—A 15-month high in bank repossessions drove a 5% increases in US residential foreclosure activity during January, and 21 states posted year-over-year increases in scheduled foreclosure auctions last month, according to a report from RealtyTrac. REOs hit a 24-month high in California and a 55-month high in New York, the firm reports.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 119,888 US properties in January, and while this is an increase from the previous month, it is still down 4% from a year ago. The 5% monthly increase was driven primarily by a 55% monthly jump in repossessions to a 15-month high. A total of 37,292 US properties were repossessed by lenders in January, up 23% from a year ago to the highest monthly total since October 2013, according to RealtyTrac.

Daren Blomquist, VP of RealtyTrac, says, “The year-over-year increase in REOs in January was the first annual increase nationwide following 25 consecutive months of declines, getting the foreclosure spring cleaning we anticipated in our last foreclosure report off to a quick start in 2015. Meanwhile, the number of future foreclosure auctions scheduled in January continued to increase in many states, foreshadowing more foreclosure spring cleaning to come in the next several months in those states.”

Things looked a bit different for REOs a year ago. As GlobeSt.com reported in February 2014, there were a total of 30,226 bank repossessions of US residential properties in January 2014, down 4% from the previous month and down 40% from January 2013, according to RealtyTrac. The firm said at the time that REO levels were at their lowest in January 2014 since 2007, marking a 78-month low.

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