A trend of fewer new real estate foreclosure lawsuits in Hawaii appears firmly re-established after an uptick during the first three months of this year.

Data from the state Judiciary show that the number of foreclosures initiated statewide in June, July and August was lower than in the same months last year.

The declines were relatively mild in June and July at 7 and 8 percent, respectively. The drop in August, however, was the largest this year at 29 percent.

There were 157 new cases in June compared with 187 in the same month last year. In July there were 179 cases, down from 195 a year earlier, and the August count was 108 compared with 153 a year ago.

The declines came on the heels of fewer foreclosure cases filed in April and May that were previously reported.

This year started with elevated levels of new foreclosure cases in January, February and March.

Three consecutive months of more new cases included quite robust gains between 10 and 42 percent, and led some observers to question whether two consecutive years of fewer Hawaii foreclosure cases was on pace to be broken.

Generally, Hawaii’s real estate and employment markets are favoring homeowners as employment and personal income are increasing while interest rates stay low and real estate values increase. Yet many factors including job loss, illness and divorce can befall homeowners and lead lenders to foreclose over delinquent mortgage debt.

For the first eight months of the year, the number of new foreclosure lawsuits is down 5 percent to 1,282 cases from 1,347 in the same period last year.

Hawaii foreclosure cases reported by the Judiciary involve mostly residential properties but also can include commercial real estate. Cases also can include foreclosures initiated by homeowner associations against homeowners who are delinquent in paying maintenance or association fees in condominiums, though it is more common for these kinds of foreclosures to be conducted out of court in a nonjudicial process that state lawmakers effectively abolished for mortgage lenders in 2011.

In one other measure of foreclosure activity, real estate information firm CoreLogic recently reported that 3.4 percent of mortgage loans in Hawaii were 90 days or more delinquent in July. That was down from 4.2 percent in July 2015. The count by California-based CoreLogic includes mortgages for homes not in foreclosure as well as homes in pending foreclosure actions.

In June the rate of seriously delinquent Hawaii mortgages was 3.6 percent compared with 4.2 percent a year earlier, CoreLogic found.