Filings, which also include default notices and scheduled auctions, rose 7 percent in the month and are up 14 percent year over year to 124,910, the company said.

Miami had the nation’s highest rate of residential foreclosures during the month of July, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.

The increase in the bay area and nationally was driven primarily by banks getting final judgments of foreclosure and taking back homes.

Bank repossessions on the national level jumped 81 percent from a year ago, to 46,957 properties in July, according to the report. Despite the recent increases, REOs in July were still less than half their peak of 102,134 in September 2010, but more than twice their pre-crisis average of 23,119 a month in 2005 and 2006.

The region’s foreclosure filings dropped by 11 percent in July, compared with last year, bucking a national trend of increased actions on distressed properties, real estate researcher RealtyTrac reported Wednesday.

“The recent surge…is in fact clearing out more of the bad bubble-era loans”, Blomquist said.

The data indicates that just over 60 percent of the loans in the foreclosure process were originated between 2004 and 2008, Blomquist said. Filings declined 8 percent in Minneapolis, while Atlantic City, N.J., had the highest rate among all metro areas with populations of at least 200,000.

Foreclosure starts decreased from a year ago in 31 states in July, including California (down 25 percent), New York (down 19 percent), Texas (down 40 percent), Illinois (down 18 percent), Georgia (down 24 percent), Ohio (down 22 percent), Michigan (down 37 percent), and Maryland (down 15 percent).

Activity was greatest in Hernando County, where one out of 264 homes was in foreclosure, and lowest in Pinellas, with one out of 450. RealtyTrac noted it recently changed some of its data-collection methods in New Mexico, which means the 187% annual increase in foreclosure activity might overstate the shift. One in every 339 Miami housing units had a foreclosure filing in July – more than three times the national average of one in every 1,057 housing units with a foreclosure filing.

Foreclosure can be a painfully long, drawn-out process.

If you find yourself in danger of falling behind on (or no longer being able to afford) your monthly mortgage payments, immediately look into ways to cut your budget or make other changes to save your home from foreclosure.