(RealShareOrange County convenes at the Hyatt Regency, Irvine,August 16. and Save the date: RealShareApartments comes to the Westin Bonaventure, LosAngeles, October 24.)

IRVINE, CA-The road to housing-industrystabilization remains rocky, but encouraging. USforeclosure activity decreased 3% in July from theprevious month, down 10% from July 2011, yet the number ofproperties beginning the foreclosure process on an annual basis hasrisen for the third straight month, according toRealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosureproperties.

The firm’s most recent US Foreclosure MarketReport indicates that foreclosure filings, includingdefault notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, werereported on 191,925 U.S. properties in July, and one in every 686US housing units nationally had a foreclosure filing during themonth. “Recent foreclosure activity patterns vary significantlyfrom state to state, often hinging on the level of dysfunction thatexists in each state’s foreclosure process,” said DarenBlomquist, VP of RealtyTrac, in a prepared statement.