One in every 88 housing units received a foreclosure filing between July and September, according to foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac. That's up 5% from the previous quarter.

ReatlyTrac's Daren Blomquist says the increase was driven by a rise in default notices, which is typically the first step in the foreclosure process. Those were up by 21% in the third quarter.

Blomquist says lenders are ramping up foreclosures after spending months clearing up the robo-signing documentation problems.

He says another sign that foreclosures will keep rising is that more homeowners are missing mortgage payments.

"There's a period of about three quarters where delinquencies are actually coming down but now for the last two quarters they've come up which is a sign that we have unfortunately more folks who are in trouble and missing their payments."

Based on per-capita data, California had the second highest foreclosure rate in the third-quarter behind Nevada.