Foreclosure petitions reached the highest number in more than a year in August, while foreclosure deeds increased for the eighth straight month in Massachusetts, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.

Foreclosure petitions – the first step in the foreclosure process in Massachusetts – jumped to 2,713 in August, a 13.23 percent increase from a year ago, when there were 2,396 starts. Foreclosure petitions were also up in August from the 2,307 starts recorded a month ago. A total of 18,358 foreclosure petitions have been recorded so far this year, a slight decrease from the 19,108 recorded during the same period in 2009.

A total of 1,207 foreclosure deeds were recorded in August, up from 659 from a year ago. So far this year, there were 9,887 completed foreclosures in the Bay State, which is more than the total number of foreclosures in all of 2009. There were 9,269 completed foreclosures last year. Foreclosure deeds decreased slightly from a month ago, when there were 1,247 deeds recorded.

"Despite reports that the recession is over, and the market is on its way to recovery, we are not out of the woods yet. Foreclosure deeds are on track to outpace the record numbers in 2008, when there were 12,430 completed foreclosures," said Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group. "Job creation and employment numbers will have to improve before we see more recovery in these foreclosure reports."

The number of auction announcements tracked by The Warren Group increased to 1,927 in August. Auction announcements jumped 36.76 percent, up from 1,409 in August 2009 and were also 7.8 percent higher than the 1,788 auction announcements tracked in July.