TAMPA - Tampa Bay foreclosure filings rose during the first six months of the year, putting the area on pace to surpass 2009.

The reason: more lenders are completing cases begun months ago.

There were 35,835 filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - in the Tampa metro area during the first half of the year, according to Calif.-based RealtyTrac. That's up nearly 6 percent from both halves of 2009.

Homeowners across the nation continue to lose homes, despite efforts by the federal government to halt foreclosures. Part of the reason the data continues to show an increase is because some temporary foreclosure modifications have failed, said Daren Blomquist, spokesman for RealtyTrac.

"It's an unintended consequence created by artificial delays in the process," Blomquist said. "For some, the modifications just delayed the inevitable."

June data, also released Thursday, showed 6,688 total local filings in June, an increase of 6 percent from May but a 7 percent decrease from the same month last year.

Trends in the Tampa area range widely: Activity in the four-county study area that includes Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Hernando, vary widely.

For example, foreclosure filings dropped 17 percent from May in Hernando and Pasco counties. However, Hillsborough saw a 6 percent increase in filings. Pinellas, which showed a 1 percent decrease in May had whopping 31 percent increase in filings in June.

Of the thousands of filings in the Tampa Bay area, 1,117 homes were taken back by lenders in June, up from 886 in May, 787 in April and 783 in June 2009.

However, lenders are filing fewer initial foreclosure lawsuits. So after homes work their way through the system, Blomquist said, foreclosures may stabilize.

But that won't happen any time soon, he said.

"We're not out of the woods yet," he said. "It looks like for many areas, including Tampa, we're on track to see more foreclosures this year than we did in 2009."

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