U.S. foreclosure filings dropped 35 percent last month to the lowest level in almost four years as lenders and state and federal agencies increased efforts to keep delinquent borrowers in their houses, Bloomberg reported.

According to data seller RealtyTrac Inc., a total of 212,764 properties received default, auction or repossession notices, the fewest in 44 months. Filings fell on a year-over-year basis for the 10th straight month, and were down 4 percent from June. One in 611 households got a notice.

“Unfortunately, the fall-off in foreclosures is not based on robust recovery in the housing marketing but on short-term interventions and delays that will extend the current housing market woes into 2012 and beyond,” said RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio in a statement.

The decline in foreclosure notices began last year when attorneys general across the country began probing a practice known as “robo-signing,” in which lenders and servicers pushed through default documents without verifying their accuracy.

Federal and state officials are also contributing to the slowdown with payment assistance and loan modifications, RealtyTrac said.

Home values fell in almost three-quarters of U.S. cities in the second quarter from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors said in a report yesterday.