A gauge of property foreclosure activity showed a continued spike in Hawai'i last month, the third straight month with more than 300 foreclosure filings.

California-based real estate research firm RealtyTrac said there were 395 foreclosure filings in the Islands in October, a three-fold increase from 131 in the same month last year.

The count was down from 594 filings in September but up from 336 in August. This year up until August, the average number of filings per month was 149.

Some observers have questioned how well RealtyTrac's methodology reflects the condition of local housing markets because the company includes commercial property in its count and excludes some rural areas from data collection.

RealtyTrac previously disclosed that its August count included a foreclosure action against an owner of multiple hotel-condominium units on Kaua'i. But the company doesn't always report extraordinary factors that cause big swings in specific markets.

The company did note that recently enacted laws in some states are mandating delays to the foreclosure process that have produced significant declines in foreclosure filings, such as a 44 percent drop in California last month compared with the same month a year earlier. No foreclosure delay law has been passed in Hawai'i.

Hawai'i's foreclosure rate, at one filing per 1,266 households, was higher than 29 other states, but was still better than the national average of one filing per 452 households.

Nationally, there were 279,561 foreclosure filings last month, which was up 25 percent from a year ago.

Nevada had the worst foreclosure rate, at one filing per 74 households. There were 14,483 total foreclosure actions in that state.

The lowest rate was in Vermont, where there were 13 foreclosure flings, or one for every 23,812 households.

Last month, National Public Radio reported that RealtyTrac doesn't count any foreclosures in more than 900 rural counties across the nation, which inaccurately gives states with big rural populations lower rankings.

RealtyTrac said it collects data from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, representing about 90 percent of the U.S. population.

The company counts judicial and nonjudicial foreclosures, and includes a range of document filings in its data from default notices to auction notices to repurchases of property by a lender. Filings on the same property aren't repeatedly counted if more than one foreclosure document is filed against the same property within the time it usually takes to complete a foreclosure, RealtyTrac said.

Some local foreclosure attorneys have expressed reservations about RealtyTrac reports, but say foreclosures are definitely rising as the Hawai'i economy slows and unemployment grows. With modest decreases in property values in many parts of the state and a broad slowdown in home sales, it has become more difficult for owners to sell their homes if they have trouble making mortgage payments.

During the state's housing slump in the mid-1990s, there were typically 300 to 400 foreclosure cases filed in court per month.

However, the historical comparison is muddied because most Hawai'i foreclosure cases in recent years occur outside court, which makes cases more difficult to track and results in a more imperfect picture of the problem.