(RALEIGH) -- The latest RealtyTrac report on foreclosures is mixed when comparing North Carolina to the national trend. The foreclosure listing firm reports that activity was up about 15 percent in the Tar Heel State from January through June, when compare to the same period last year.

"We're on a downward trend but because of many of the delays that we've been talking about in foreclosures over the last year and a half there's still a large pool of distressed loans that these lenders are having to deal with," said RealtyTrac's Daren Blomquist.

RealtyTrac reported that there were 17,629 North Carolina properties that received foreclosure filings in the first six months of the year. North Carolina is one of the states where foreclosures have been put off by challenges to the process.