According to a quarterly report by a real estate research company and even as foreclosure filings rose across the rest of the nation, less people were hit this summer with bank notices for Florida foreclosures.

The number of homes entering foreclosure increased 2% nationally from the second to third quarter but fell 6% in Florida. As new filings fell nationwide, even on a monthly basis, in September from the month before, new Florida foreclosures were down more than anywhere else in the country.

Daren Blomquist a market analyst for RealtyTrac, the Irvine, California company that produces the report said, ``That would be the first step toward a shift in a trend and as those numbers go down, you'll see fewer properties going through the entire Florida foreclosures process.''

Blomquist said, Florida still has a long way to go because property values continue to fall and the state still has plenty of Miami homes for sale and in the foreclosure pipeline. The Sunshine State, during the third quarter,  ranked fourth in the nation in terms of the proportion of households in foreclosure, with one in every 158 housing units in some stage of the process. The state has ranked in the top five nationally, for most of the past year.