More than 62,000 Tampa Bay properties - close to 5 percent of area households - were flagged with foreclosure filings in 2009.

It was also a year of mortgage mayhem in Florida, where lenders sued 516,711 properties for foreclosure, and in the United States, where 2.8 million properties were afflicted.

Was there a positive sign strewn among the wreckage? Maybe. In December, foreclosures tapered off a tad in Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Hernando counties, raising hopes for a happier 2010.

But some housing analysts fear the decline was caused more by government stopgaps and bureaucratic overload than by a housing recovery.

"As bad as the 2009 numbers are, they probably would have been worse if not for legislative and industry-related delays in processing delinquent loans," said James Saccacio, chief executive of RealtyTrac, the company that released the foreclosure report.

"After peaking in July … we saw four straight monthly decreases driven primarily by short-term factors: trial loan modifications, state legislation extending the foreclosure process, and an overwhelming volume of inventory clogging the foreclosure pipeline."

The number of Tampa Bay properties getting a foreclosure notice rose 17 percent, from 53,630 in 2008 to 62,719 in 2009. Most of the 2009 cases were fresh, although RealtyTrac double counted some properties initially sued for foreclosure in 2008 but receiving additional notices in 2009.

University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith said governmental anti-foreclosure programs, bankrolled by tens of billions of dollars, have failed so far to stem the rise in mortgage defaults.

A good percentage of homeowners accepting government assistance will redefault on their mortgages, Snaith said. And the rescue programs barely touch worst-off homeowners: those most deeply underwater on their home loans.

"Your most sickly patients aren't being admitted," he said.

Florida homeowners generally don't receive foreclosure notices until they've missed at least three house payments. According to consultant First American CoreLogic, close to 15 percent of Tampa Bay mortgages are delinquent and at risk for foreclosure.

"In the long term, a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market," Saccacio said.

Snaith assumes real estate will continue to slide through the summer and recover its footing late in the year. "2010 will come to an end on a better note than 2009 did," he said.