The latest report from RealtyTrac on foreclosures shows a precipitous drop in the number of foreclosure filings between January and February, and that the total number of foreclosures in February was the lowest since February 2008. If you only want to hear the good news, stop reading now.

While the 13.9% drop in foreclosure actions between January and February should be cause for hope, RealtyTrac cautions that the January number was likely artificially high as a result of the bottleneck caused by last fall’s massive, temporary foreclosure freezes by huge mortgage-holders like Bank of America and GMAC/Ally.

“The drop-off was too severe to be organic,” a Senior VP at RealtyTrac tells Reuters. “There’s nothing in the underlying conditions that are causing foreclosures to suggest they should be going down yet.”

Foreclosure filings at three year low in February: report [NY Daily News]

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