The number of homes seized by lenders tumbled in October, while fewer properties were in the foreclosure process in another sign of improvement for the sector, data analysis firm CoreLogic Inc. said today, Reuters reported.

There were 58,000 completed foreclosures in October, down from 77,000 in September and 70,000 a year ago, according to a report from CoreLogic.

From 2000 to 2006, an average 21,000 foreclosures were completed a month, the report said. There have been about 3.9 million foreclosures since the height of the financial crisis in September 2008.

About 1.3 million homes were in some stage of foreclosure in October, down 1.3 percent from the month before. That accounts for about 3.2 percent of all mortgages.

In the 12 months ending in October, five states accounted for nearly half of all completed foreclosures in the country. California took the top spot with 105,000 homes seized in the last year, followed by Florida, Michigan, Texas and Georgia.

In Iowa, the number of mortgages in foreclosure dropped 0.1 percent in the year ending in October to 3,754, according to the report.