The number of Hawai'i homes entering foreclosure rose in March compared with a year earlier, but the state still had one of the nation's lowest foreclosure rates.

A 44 percent rise to 65 foreclosure cases put Hawai'i's rate at one foreclosure action for every 7,085 households. That compares with a national rate that rose 47 percent to one foreclosure per 775 households.

Only seven states had lower rates than Hawai'i. RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based real-estate research firm that produced the report, said Vermont, with only one foreclosure, had the lowest rate, at one per 294,382 households.

The worst rate was in Nevada, which had 4,738 foreclosures, one per 183 households.