Foreclosure filings rose in May after dipping between March and April.

Last month, 7,655 filings were recorded on San Diego County homes, noting they had reached a new stage of foreclosure, according to numbers released yesterday by RealtyTrac.

There are three stages of foreclosure — notice of default, notice of auction or trustee's sale, and bank repossession or REO. Here is the breakdown by filing type: 3,493 notices of default were filed; 3,150 auction notices; and 1,012 repossessions.

The 7,655 filings represented an 8 percent rise from April, and a 20 percent increase year-over-year. RealtyTrac said the number of properties in some stage of foreclosure nationwide has topped 300,000 for three straight months, a first in the firm's history.

It's tough to tell how bad the situation will get, but new data on the number of homeowners behind on their payments show that a worsening flood of foreclosures is a distinct possibility.

In April, 5.74 percent of outstanding San Diego County mortgages were at least 90 days late on payments, according to a report from First American CoreLogic released Monday. That 90-day delinquency rate marked a 0.94 percent increase from April last year.

At the same time, the rate of home loans going into foreclosure (roughly captured by those filings noted above) was only 1.58 percent, actually marking a decrease of 0.21 percent over the year. That means there were more loans falling delinquent than received official notice of default — indicating a bottleneck and many foreclosures to come.

Here's a heat map of the foreclosure situation in San Diego County, via First American CoreLogic (if you want to zoom in, click here):

And if you haven't seen Rich Toscano's take on an "unusually violent" increase in mortgage rates, check it out.

— KELLY BENNETT