Illinois had a sudden surge in foreclosures in October, up 57 percent from a year ago, that pushed the state to the notoriously higher No. 6 spot nationwide, according to a report expected to be released today.

Illinois posted the third-highest state total foreclosure filings after California and Florida, with 19,946 properties filing in October, the highest monthly total for Illinois since Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac began tracking foreclosures here in January 2005.

A state law that gives distressed homeowners an extra grace period to help avoid foreclosure may have created some pent-up foreclosure activity in the state. After the law went into effect in April, Illinois foreclosure activity decreased for three months before going up again, the RealtyTrac report said.

That law and other problems likely led to the spike, said Phil Ashton, assistant professor of urban planning and policy at University of Illinois at Chicago.

"There's been a lot of different things going on," said Ashton. "Now there's the recession, job losses, depreciated property and other losses."

Nationwide, foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions - were reported on 332,292 U.S. properties during October, a decrease of 3 percent from the previous month but up nearly 19 percent from October 2008.

The report also shows one in every 385 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in October.