Foreclosure rates in Mesa County drifted lower last month, while Colorado saw a spike in activity that was enough to rank the state second in the nation behind only Nevada, industry data showed Monday.

Filings in Mesa County eased to one per every 850 households in February, from one per every 807 households in January, according to RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based firm that monitors foreclosure activity.

Mesa County ranked 19th in the state last month. By comparison, Mesa County ranked 16th among the state’s 64 counties in January.

Neighboring Garfield County ranked 27th in the state last month, with one filing every 1,734 households, while Delta County had one per every 773 households to rank 18th.

Mesa County Public Trustee Paul N. Brown said there wasn’t anything “earth- shaking” about the February data. The trustee’s office processes foreclosures on deeds of trust.

He added that a little less than 30 percent of all the foreclosure filings in the county actually go to sale.

The highest foreclosure rate in the Centennial State was recorded in Adams County, with one per every 154 households. Pueblo County ranked second, notching one filing per every 171 households.

Weld County rounded out the top three with one per every 200 households, RealtyTrac reported. Weld County ranked first in January with one filing per every 173 households.

For the period ended Feb. 28, Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the country with one per every 278 households. That marked the second straight month that Nevada has led the nation and represented a 24 percent uptick in foreclosure activity from the previous month.

Colorado had the second highest rate with one per every 345 households, the report found.

That represented an increase of 9 percent from January. Florida ranked third with a 63 percent rise in filings to one for every 382 households.

Florida also reported the most foreclosure filings in the country last month at 19,144.

All told, there were 130,786 foreclosure filings in the country last month, or 4 percent fewer than revised figures for January, RealtyTrac reported. Foreclosure filings cover default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.

James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac, said based on numbers for the first two months of the year, “foreclosure activity is running at a rate that would project to a 33 percent increase over 2006.”

Wyatt Haupt Jr. can be reached via e-mail at whaupt@gjds.com