The number of Americans falling 60 days or more behind in their mortgages fell 6.4 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter, but the percentage of those who fell 30 to 59 days behind rose by 4.3 percent, according to a new report by bank regulators.

At the same time, foreclosures increased 31.2 percent to 382,000 in the most recent quarter and were up 3.7 percent from a year ago, according to the report by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision.

The number of foreclosures in process increased to 1.2 million, or 4.5 percent, from the previous quarter, and 10.1 percent more than a year earlier.

The number of completed foreclosures also increased to nearly 187,000, or 14.7 percent more than in the previous quarter, and 57.5 percent more than a year earlier.

Although foreclosure activity increased in the third quarter, servicers reported almost twice as many home retention actions as completed home forfeiture actions.

Servicers implemented 470,321 home retention actions – loan modifications, trial period plans, and shorter-term payment plans – compared with 244,840 home forfeiture actions.

For the first time, the report provided mortgage modification data by state. It shows that 21.6 percent of all mortgage modifications are in California with Florida being 10.6 percent.

It shows that in the third quarter 6,411 loan modifications were implemented under the federal government's Home Affordable Modification program (HAMP) and 17,355 "other” modifications in Florida.

Of those, 309 resulted in a rate reduction or freeze and 326 saw in a reduction of the principal.

Of those Floridians who saw a reduction in their principal and interest, 59.4 percent saw it decrease 20 percent or more, while 13.8 percent saw it decrease between 10 percent and 20 percent and 14.8 percent saw a less than 10 percent decrease. Another 4.1 percent saw no change and 7 percent saw their monthly principal and interest increase.

Nationally, more than 88 percent of modifications implemented during the third quarter decreased monthly principal and interest payments. More than 54 percent of those modifications reduced payments by 20 percent or more. On average, modifications during the third quarter reduced borrowers' monthly principal and interest payments by $396. HAMP modifications reduced payments by an average of $585, compared with a payment reduction of $332 from other modifications.

The complete report can be downloaded from the OCC and OTS websites at www.occ.gov or www.ots.gov.