The number of U.S. homes taken over by banks fell by 9 percent in October, according to real estate data company RealtyTrac Inc.

Lenders foreclosed on 93,236 U.S. residence properties, down from a record high in September but up 21 percent from October 2009.

Total foreclosures stood at 332,172 down 4 percent from September and almost exactly the same as October 2009, the report said.

“The numbers probably would have been higher except for the fallout from the recent ‘robo-signing’ controversy,” said RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio in an interview with Reuters. Saccacio said he expects further declines in November.

Five states – California, Florida, Michigan, Illinois and Arizona – accounted for more than 50 percent of all foreclosure activity. California accounted for 20 percent of the national total.

One in every 896 housing units in Iowa received a foreclosure filing in October, compared with one in 79 housing units in Nevada, the national leader.

Polk County had 428 foreclosures in the month.

“Our guess at this point is that we’ll probably see another month of some delays,” said Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac vice president in an interview with Reuters. “We will probably still end this year with probably 1.2 million bank repossessions, which would be a record.”