Foreclosures in Ohio headed opposite the nationwide direction in the first half of the year, dropping 15 percent from a year earlier, RealtyTrac Inc. reported Thursday.

The Irvine, Calif.-based company, which compiles and sells foreclosure data, said Ohio logged 58,937 default, auction and bank repossession notices in the first six months of 2009. Those foreclosure filings piled up at a rate of one for every 86 households in the state, ranking Ohio 12th highest in the nation for most filings.

Ohio was, however, among 15 states to experience a drop in foreclosures from the first half of 2008.

The national foreclosure pace for the period jumped 15 percent from a year earlier to 1.53 million filings, RealtyTrac reported. Nearly half of those filings were made in California and Florida, among the hardest hit by the housing meltdown.

RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said unemployment-related problems were behind much of the increase in foreclosures despite industry and state-ordered moratoriums aimed at helping troubled borrowers stay in their houses. The volume of foreclosures in the second quarter was the highest since RealtyTrac began compiling foreclosure data in 2005, he said.