Hawaii foreclosure filings in September hovered close to the record set in July just under 1,000 even as home resales on Oahu have shown some recent signs of improvement.

There were 969 filings statewide last month, which was a 63 percent rise from 594 filings in the same month last year and close to the record of 990 set in July, according to a report from real estate research firm RealtyTrac.

The filings last month equated to one for every 523 households. Hawaii's rate was better than the national rate of one filing per 372 households, though Hawaii had the 15th highest, or worst, foreclosure rate among states.

This year, Hawaii's monthly ranking has ranged from 15th to 30th for highest foreclosure rate, compared with rankings typically in the 40s (among 10 states with the lowest foreclosure rates) over the prior two years.

Part of the reason Hawaii foreclosure filings are now worse than many other states is that housing markets in other states crashed earlier and are now faring better, while Hawaii's housing market has experienced a more moderate downturn that is still unfolding.

"I don't know where we're headed,"said Richard Daggett, a local real estate broker who serves as a commissioner for judicial foreclosure cases and holds seminars on how to buy foreclosures. "There are a tremendous amount of foreclosures every day."

Daggett said the foreclosure cases filed in court are beginning to back up, in part because of the increasing volume and Circuit Judge Karen Blondin retiring earlier this year.

Most foreclosures in Hawaii are handled outside the court system in a nonjudicial process. This has made an accurate count of foreclosures difficult.

California-based RealtyTrac counts three types of filings in Hawaii — default notices, trustee sale notices and lender repossessions.

More than half the filings last month, 598, were sale notices. There were 162 default notices and 209 repossessions.

Because of RealtyTrac's methodology, total foreclosures may be over-counted because the data can include different filings on the same property if the filings occur in different months.

For instance, a home acquired by a lender could have been counted twice before in earlier months first as a default notice and then as a sale notice.

On the other hand, many default notices in nonjudicial foreclosures aren't a public record that can be counted, which likely means RealtyTrac's count of the earliest state of foreclosure is underrepresented.

Another significant caveat with RealtyTrac's data is that it includes commercial property, including condominium-hotel units and timeshares.

Still, experts agree that increasing numbers of Hawaii homeowners are struggling to keep their homes. Job losses, furloughs and wage reductions continue to occur around the state amid the economic downturn. And despite a small uptick in home sales on Oahu in recent months, relatively weak demand persists, making it harder for people to avoid foreclosure if they can't sell their house or pay their mortgage.

By county, Honolulu, or Oahu, had the highest overall number of foreclosure filings at 382, but the lowest rate per household at one filing per 876 households. The Big Island had 262 filings, or one per 296 households. Maui had 255 filings, or one per 255 households. Kauai had 70 filings, or one per 417 households.