Consultancy firm RealtyTrac has reported that the number of U. S. properties likely to undergo foreclosure actions, have surged by 16% in the first quarter of this year in contrast with the previous year's records.

RealtyTrac's Chief Executive James J. Saccacio suggested that the U. S. real estate owned by lenders, at present, is at the topmost level.

"There may be further evidence that lenders are starting to make a dent in the backlog of distressed inventory that has built up over the last year", he said.

The Foreclosure filings, auctions and bank reclamations have been reported to have been undertaken by more than 932,000 properties during the quarter. This implies that around one in every 138 U. S. housing divisions have made these filings.

As per the data provided in the report, 367,000 properties were reported to have gone in for foreclosure filings, in March, with the number rising by 8% in contrast with that in March 2009.

From the last 13 quarters, Nevada has been marked as the state to have the highest foreclosure rate in US. As mentioned in the report, 1 in every 33 housing divisions in the state had filed in for a foreclosure in the first quarter of 2010.

This comes out to be almost four times the national average.