TAMPA - Tampa Bay continued its trend of declining foreclosure activity in November, despite rising foreclosures in the rest of the state.

Area filings dropped 9 percent on a yearly basis and 1 percent from the previous month, according to RealtyTrac, the Calif.-based company that tracks mortgage activity.

Tampa Bay's foreclosure rate in November was one filing for every 214 households. A filing is considered any default notice, scheduled foreclosure auction or bank repossession.

Florida, on the other hand, saw an 8 percent increase in filings from the same month last year and an increase of 2 percent from the October.

Florida edged out California as the state with the second-highest foreclosure rate in the nation.

But Tampa's good news doesn't look like a fluke.

These increases follow declines in the previous two months. October's yearly decline of nearly 18 percent was the largest drop in filings in the Tampa Bay area since RealtyTrac began tracking annual changes in Jan. 2008.

Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for RealtyTrac attributes the decreases to declining home prices and distressed sales.

Nationwide, 306,627 properties received filings, an 8 percent decrease from the previous month, but still up nearly 18 percent from a year ago. In November, one in every 417 U.S. households received a filing.

It was the fourth straight month-to-month decline.

Nevada's foreclosure rate – one in every 119 households - led the nation.

For the second month in a row, the same four states accounted for 52 percent of the country's foreclosure activity. Those states are California, Florida, Illinois and Michigan.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804.