The number of homes being fore closured in the United States was up 126 percent over the last three months, Realty Trac Inc. reported yesterday.

Home foreclosures from July to September totaled 250,091, the firm said.

The five states with the most foreclosures were California, Florida, Michigan, Arizona and Texas.

Meanwhile, realty firm DataQuick reported that in California, a record number of 79,511 homes were lost to foreclosure over the last three months, up 228 percent from last year.

DataQuick said California had seen more homes being taken back by lenders in the three months ended Sept. 30 than at any time since the company started tracking foreclosures in 1992.

In the previous three months, which also set a record, 63,316 homes were lost to foreclosure in California. That's a huge swing from an all-time low just two years ago of 637 in the second quarter of 2005, according to DataQuick.

At the same time, California saw a sharp decline in activity from banks taking the first steps toward foreclosure. The number of default notices that lenders send to homeowners fell last quarter for the first time in three years, down 22.5 percent from last quarter but up 29.9 percent from the same period last year.

Housing experts say that change is the direct result of a new state law that forces lenders to make repeated attempts to contact a homeowner before foreclosing on the home.

"If that procedural change hadn't kicked in during early September, indications are that third-quarter default filings would have been about the same as the record number filed in this year's second quarter," Data Quick said in a press release.

Housing experts continue to predict that foreclosures will rise for the rest of 2008 and into 2009 before hitting their peak.

"It will get worse," said Jeff Lazerson, the president of Mortgage Grader, an online mortgage clearinghouse. "It's going to be driven by unemployment and underemployment, and we're seeing those numbers go up. I think we won't see a peak until at least next year."