During a tour of foreclosed properties in Fall River earlier this week, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan noted that he’s seeing early signs of progress because foreclosure rates nationwide have dropped.

Part of that drop probably has to do with the federal push to get lenders to modify loans for borrowers. The U.S. Treasury Department reports that more than 650,000 borrowers have signed up for trial loan modifications.

Here in Massachusetts, the number of residential property foreclosures has declined from last year.

But petitions to foreclose – which mark the first step in the foreclosure process – are up more than 20 percent. And nationally, the mortgage delinquency rate has hit a record.

The Warren Group will release its latest report on foreclosures in Massachusetts tomorrow and depending on how you look at the numbers, there’s a mixture of good and bad news.

But there’s one factor that will always spell bad news for foreclosures: unemployment. And unfortunately, there haven’t been any early signs that unemployment is heading down.