According to a report from Realty Trac, Maryland ranked third in the nation in foreclosures in January. As reported in the Baltimore Sun, one in every 543 homes in the State is touched by foreclosure filings.

The increase in foreclosure activity – up 98 percent year-over-year to almost 4,400 filings – ran counter to the national trend, which saw foreclosure activity fall 18 percent from January 2013, according to data from real estate information firm RealtyTrac. The firm tracks default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.

Experts cite Maryland’s judicial foreclosure process and lawsuits against lenders as having slowed down foreclosure proceedings. Now the banks are starting to moving through the backlog of these long delinquent loans.

Secretary Raymond Skinner, of the state’s Department of Housing & Community Development, said the state expects foreclosure activity to slow down in future months, pointing a 10 percent drop in activity compared to December.

“We expect the annual growth rate of property foreclosures will continue to moderate over the coming months as lenders continue to deplete their inventory of seriously delinquent loans,” he said in a statement.

For more information, read the full article in the Baltimore Sun.