MIAMI, Florida - March 11, 2010 - Although the foreclosure rate nationwide slipped 2% in February from the previous month, Florida continues to be dogged by an increasing number of foreclosures, according to the latest numbers from RealtyTrac.

In fact, foreclosure activity in the Sunshine State rose by nearly 15% in February, over the previous month, and was up more than 16% from the prior-year period, according to the Irvine, Kalifornia-based online real estate company.

Florida also continued to post the nation’s second-highest total number of foreclosures, with 54,032 properties receiving a foreclosure filing in February.

Although still up, the number of foreclosures in Broward County appears to have eased a bit in February, when there were 7,872, or one in every 102, homes in foreclosure. That was up just 2.54% from January, when there were 7,677 homes facing default.

Year-over-year, filings were up 48% in Broward. In February 2009, there were 5,318 homes in foreclosure.

The picture was even bleaker in Palm Beach County, where there were 4,490, or one in every 143, homes in foreclosure. That was up 62.5% from a month earlier, when there were 2,762 foreclosures filed, and up 68.4% from February 2009, when there were 2,665 foreclosure filings.

In Miami-Dade County, there were 6,671 foreclosures, or one in every 147 homes, up 44% from a month earlier, when there were 3,393 filings, and up 86.6% from a year earlier, when there were 3,575 filings.