Foreclosures in Florida continued to rise in September, as job losses, declining property values and adjusting mortgage payments pushed nearly 50,000 new homeowners into default, according to new data released Thursday.

Statewide new foreclosure filings were up 44 percent over the same month a year ago and 9 percent from August, according to foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac of Irvine, Calif.

Florida ranked second after Nevada, with one of every 178 households receiving notice from lenders of their intent to take back the property, the firm reported.

Nevada, which had a smaller number of homes getting notice, showed a 137 percent increase over September of last year with one new filing for every 82 housing units. New filings there were up 11 percent from August.

California came in third, but likely because of a state law that took effect in September requiring lenders to make contact with homeowners 30 days before initiating foreclosure proceedings. The state had nearly 70,000 new filings last month, a 32 percent increase over last year .

Among the 10 worst off cities in the country, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando made the list from Florida. Fort Lauderdale ranked fifth with 2.3 percent of residential properties getting a notice. Orlando was eighth with 1.87 percent of units going under.

Six of the top 10 cities were in California. The remaining two were Las Vegas and Phoenix.

Nationwide, foreclosures were up by 21 percent over September of last year.

The combination of sinking home values, tighter mortgage lending criteria and an economy that many experts think has already slipped into recession has left hundreds of thousands of homeowners with few options.

Many can't find buyers or owe more than their home is worth and can't refinance into an affordable loan, with the global credit crisis making loans far less available.

For those who can qualify for a loan or have cash to invest, there are bargains to be had, especially in ravaged markets like Nevada, Florida and California.

Last month, foreclosure resales accounted for more than half of existing home sales in California, as home sales jumped 65 percent from a year ago, while the statewide median home price fell 34 percent to $283,000, according to MDA DataQuick.

By the end of the year, RealtyTrac expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing about a third of all properties for sale in the United States.

That's bad news for anyone who lives nearby and wants to sell their home. While foreclosure sales are booming in many areas, those properties are commanding deep discounts and pulling down neighboring property values.

''It has a pretty significant impact in terms of pricing,'' said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president for marketing.

RealtyTrac, however, reported foreclosure filings in September were actually down 12 percent from August nationally. But much of that decline was the result of new state laws that delay the foreclosure process.

In addition to the new California law, a similar one in North Carolina gives borrowers 45 days notice before lenders can file for default.

Still, that's not likely to be enough to save homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Nearly 12 million of the 52 million Americans with a mortgage -- that's 23 percent of them -- are in that position, according to Moody's Economy.com. In South Florida, four in 10 homeowners who bought within the last five years are similarly under water.

It remains to be seen how much the government's intervention will stem the housing crisis. Earlier this month, the Federal Housing Administration launched a program that aims to prevent foreclosures by allowing homeowners to swap their mortgages for more affordable loans, but only if their lender agrees to take a loss on the initial loan. The bill is projected to help about 400,000 households.

Meanwhile, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which took over Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac Bank over the summer, has been aggressively modifying troubled home loans since August in an effort to stave off foreclosures.

Congressional Democrats are calling for that approach to be expanded as the Treasury Department buys billions in troubled mortgage debt as part of a $700 billion financial industry bailout.

This report was supplemented with material from The Associated Press.