Foreclosures simmering

U.S. foreclosure activity and default notices affected one of every 213 homes in the third quarter, a private real estate firm said Thursday. RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosed properties, said foreclosure activity rose less than 1 percent from quarter to quarter and dropped 34 percent from the third quarter of 2010. In the third quarter 610,337 properties were involved in some level of the foreclose process, RealtyTrac said. The firm said foreclosure activity was on "a slow burn." "U.S. foreclosure activity has been mired down since October of last year,when the robo-signing controversy sparked a flurry  of investigations into lender foreclosure procedures and paperwork," said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. "While foreclosure activity in September and the third quarter continued to register well below levels from a year ago, there is evidence that this temporary downward trend is about to change direction, with foreclosure activity slowly beginning to ramp back up," he said. Due to the paperwork controversy that derailed thousands of foreclosures, the average foreclosure took 336 days to complete, a record going back to 2007, the firm said.In New York, the average foreclosure that was completed in the third quarter took 986 days -- or 2.7 years -- from start to finish, RealtyTrac said. In New Jersey, the average time to complete a foreclosure took 974 days in the third quarter. In Florida it took 749 days.