Iowa accounted for less than one-tenth of one percent of the nation’s property foreclosures in November, according to the latest RealtyTrac market report.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 522 Iowa properties in November, an increase of 4 percent from the previous month, and 30 percentage points below the level reported for November 2007. Nationwide there were 259,085 properties with foreclosure filings during the month.

Iowa ranked 35th in the country in total properties with foreclosure filings for November. One in every 2,529 Iowa housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month, earning the Hawkeye State a 38th-place ranking among the states.

Polk County, which had 217 properties with foreclosure filings during November, accounted for nearly half of the state’s activity. Scott County was a distant second with 78 such properties. Lee and Pottawattamie counties tied for third with 58 properties. Johnson County came in fourth, documenting 27 properties with foreclosure filings.

Although Polk County (which includes Des Moines) had the most filings overall, Pottawattamie County (part of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area) had the highest foreclosure rate in the state, with one in every 674 housing units affected — 3.8 times the state average. Polk County earned the second-place spot with one in every 830 housing units affected — 3.1 times the state average.

National foreclosure filings dropped 7 percent from October to November, but remained 28 percent above the total reported for November 2007. Although some may consider the decrease as a sign of better things to come, James Saccacio, RealtyTrac chief executive, encouraged caution.

“Delinquencies on loans not yet in the foreclosure process jumped to nearly 7 percent in the third quarter, a record high, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association,” he said in a prepared statement. “And more than half of the homeowners who received loan modifications to reduce monthly mortgage payments in the first half of 2008 are already delinquent on their loans again, according to the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision.”

Foreclosures are also expected to jump in early 2009 because many lending institutions both had a shorter months in November and December due to holiday closings and, being human, few wanted to deliver bad news during the celebratory season.

RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is filed against a property during the month — which is extremely rare — only the most recent filing is counted in the report.