Foreclosures Rise for First Time in Year as Backlogs Ease

U.S. lenders started foreclosures on more properties in the third quarter, the first increase in a year, as a backlog stemming from claims of faulty home seizures began to ease.

New foreclosures rose to 1.08 percent of all loans from 0.96 percent in the prior three months, according to a report today from the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington. The rate had been falling since the third quarter of 2010, when regulators began investigating robo-signing, the practice of pushing through unverified paperwork.