RIVERSIDE – The number of foreclosure filings in Riverside County dipped last month but still exceeded the year-ago figure by more than 80 percent, a real estate tracking firm reported Thursday.

A total 8,143 mortgage default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions were recorded in Riverside County in June, about 10 percent less than in May and roughly 81 percent more than in June 2007, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac, an online publisher of nationwide foreclosure market data.

The county ranked fourth in the state – compared to second in May – in the overall volume of foreclosure activity last month, RealtyTrac said.

For the seventh straight month, California was second in the nation in foreclosure volume, just behind Nevada and just ahead of Arizona, figures showed.

According to RealtyTrac, 68,666 foreclosure filings were recorded statewide in June, representing a 5 percent decline from May and a 77 percent increase from a year earlier.

“June was the second straight month with more than a quarter million properties nationwide receiving foreclosure filings,” said RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio.

“Foreclosure activity slipped 3 percent lower from the previous month, but the year-over-year increase of more than 50 percent indicates we have not yet reached the top of this foreclosure cycle.”

According to RealtyTrac, one in every 90 households in Riverside County slipped into some stage of foreclosure last month, compared to one in 155 households in June 2007, when 4,500 properties in the county entered foreclosure.