Foreclosure activity declined in Los Angeles County and across California in February as the housing market continued to shake off effects of the recession, a market tracker said Wednesday.

The county and state are also faring better than the the nation, where foreclosure activity jumped 6 percent from a year ago, said Irvine-based Realty RealtyTrac.

"There are a lot of people who are in distress and falling into foreclosure but the banks are taking longer to push the property all the way through the foreclosure process," said RealtyTrac spokesman Daren Blomquist.

The report also said:

Residential and commercial foreclosures in L.A. County totaled 14,860 in February, a 9 percent drop from the 16,125 filings recorded a year earlier and the 16,175 filings in January.

California saw 68,582 filings in February, down 15 percent from 80,775 filings a year earlier. Filings were down 4.5 from 70,817 in January.

Nationally, 308,524 foreclosures were filed in February, up from 293,453 a year earlier. Activity fell 2percent from 315,716 in January.

While the numbers are moderating, it does not necessarily mean that the crisis is past, Blomquist said.

Notices of default, the first step in the foreclosure process, peaked in the county at 10,689 last July. While they have been gradually declining, they jumped 21 percent from January to February.

"What that tells me is that we're still not at the end of

Last year, foreclosures accounted for almost half of the homes sold in California compared to just more than one-third in 2008.

"I think we'll be in a foreclosure environment for the next three to four years," said Leslie Appleton-Young vice president and chief economist at the California Association of Realtors.