egg-harbor-home-foreclosure

A foreclosure sign sits outside of a southern New Jersey home in this file photo.

(Mel Evans/AP)

A new report shows bank repossessions in the Garden State jumped up in the first quarter of 2015 compared to a year ago, bucking the national trend.

The state's foreclosure rate also remained among the top in the nation, according to the report from RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based firm that tracks housing data.

Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said New Jersey is still working through foreclosures that have been "bogged down" over the last few years. But he said there are signs that the state is starting to see the "beginning of the end of these lingering foreclosures."

More than 313,000 properties throughout the United States had foreclosure filings, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, in the first quarter of 2015, the RealtyTrac report shows. That's a drop of 7 percent from the previous quarter and a decrease of roughly 8 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

Foreclosure filings were reported on more than 15,000 New Jersey properties in the first quarter of 2015, according to the report, which represents a decrease of 36 percent from the previous quarter but a jump of 17 percent from a year ago.

One in every 234 homes in New Jersey had foreclosure filings in the most recent quarter, according to RealtyTrac. Illinois, Nevada, Maryland and Florida posted higher foreclosure rates.

Foreclosures starts in the country dropped by 8 percent overall from a year ago, according to the report, and bank repossessions decreased by 14 percent.

In New Jersey, foreclosure starts dropped 10 percent in the first quarter of 2015 from a year ago, the report shows. Bank repossessions, however, jumped up by 18 percent over the same time frame.

Blomquist said the uptick in bank repossessions in New Jersey comes after several quarters of increases in foreclosure starts.

"Those properties that have been starting the foreclosure process are now making their way and actually being repossessed," he said.

The average time to complete a foreclosure in New Jersey was the second-highest in the country in the first quarter of 2015

It took 620 days to finish the process among foreclosures completed in the most recent quarter in the United States, according to RealtyTrac, while it took 1,115 days in New Jersey. The foreclosure process only took longer in New York, at 1,475 days.

The report also included monthly data for March.

More than 7,000 properties had foreclosure filings in March in New Jersey, an increase of 76 percent from the previous month and a jump of 106 percent from a year ago.

Nationally, more than 122,000 properties had foreclosure filings in March, according to RealtyTrac. That represents a 20 percent increase from February and a 4 percent jump from a year ago.

Erin O'Neill may be reached at eoneill@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.