October was the third time in four months that foreclosure filings in Hawai'i were over 900, as significant numbers of homeowners continued to struggle to keep their homes in a dismal economy rife with job losses.

There were 925 filings statewide last month, which was more than double the 395 filings in the same month last year, according to a report from real estate research firm RealtyTrac.

The October figure was short of the 969 filings in September and the record 990 in July.

Observers say layoffs, furloughs and wage cuts are a primary factor affecting homeowners with mortgage payment difficulties, especially those who purchased their homes at or near the peak of the market a few years ago with adjustable-rate mortgages that are resetting to higher interest rates.

Also, even though there has been modest growth in demand from home buyers on O'ahu in recent months, depressed prices and relatively few sales still present a challenge for people to sell their homes for prices that would allow them to avoid foreclosure.

The lowest rate of foreclosure filings last month was in the state's largest county, Honolulu, or O'ahu, where 388 filings represented one filing per 863 households.

On the Big Island, there were 230 filings, or one per 338 households. Maui had 218 filings, or one per 298 households. Kauai had 89 filings, or one per 328 households.

Compared with other states, Hawai'i's foreclosure rate was 17th-worst in the nation at one filing per 545 households but was still significantly better than the national rate of one filing per 385 households.

The worst rate was in Neveda, where 13,842 foreclosure cases equated to one for every 80 households. The best rate was in Vermont, where 15 filings equated to one for every 20,762 households.

Hawai'i has consistently been in the bottom half of RealtyTrac's national foreclosure rankings since March, partly because home prices in other states crashed earlier and are now faring better, while Hawai'i's housing market has experienced a more moderate downturn that continues to drag on.

Some observers say Hawai'i's foreclosure problem, while serious, isn't as severe as RealtyTrac figures suggest because of the way the company counts filings.

California-based RealtyTrac includes commercial property, including condominium-hotel units and timeshares, in its foreclosure count, which can elevate Hawai'i's count compared with states that don't have large tourism or commercial real estate industries.

RealtyTrac also counts three different types of filings — default notices, trustee sale notices and lender repossessions. Last month, more than half the filings, 557, were sale notices that occur midway in the foreclosure process. Another 219 were lender repossessions that are the last stage of foreclosure. Only 149 were default notices that begin the foreclosure process.

Because RealtyTrac counts different types of filings, foreclosure cases may be overcounted if there are multiple filings in different months for the same property.

For instance, a home acquired by a lender could have been counted twice before in earlier months, first as a default notice and then as a sale notice. RealtyTrac excludes multiple filings on the same property only if they are made in the same month.

On the other hand, many default notices may not be counted, thereby underrepresenting activity in the earliest stage of foreclosure, because most of these filings are made out of court in a nonjudicial process that often doesn't produce a public document.

To be sure, not all foreclosure cases progress to the auction stage if owners resolve financial problems, modify their loan or sell their property to satisfy a delinquency.