Home foreclosures in Los Angeles County in July rose 41 percent from a year ago, according to new report from RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine-based seller of foreclosure data.

The news could have been worse. L.A. County ranked in the middle of the pack – No. 26 among California counties last month – with one in every 253 households in foreclosure. In comparison, the county in the worst shape, Merced, recorded one in every 73 homes in foreclosure.

“When you look at it, Los Angeles is continuing to increase but hasn’t been as hard hit as other counties,” said RealtyTrack spokesman Daren Blomquist. “It’s certainly doing better than other counties in Southern California.”

Riverside and San Bernardino counties ranked fourth and fifth worst in the state, with one in 89 and one in 93 homes in foreclosure, respectively. L.A. also fared slightly better than Orange County, No. 25 with one in 237 homes in foreclosure, and outpaced San Diego and Ventura counties, which came in at No. 17 and 18 with one in 185 and one in 189 homes, respectively.

Nationwide, banks repossessed almost three times as many homes in July than a year ago, and the number of properties at risk of foreclosure jumped 55 percent as falling prices made it harder to sell or refinance. Nevada, California and Florida were the markets in the worst shape.

The Business Journal this week reported L.A. County’s median price fell 28 percent last month to $420,000 – the lowest since May 2004, according to Melville, N.Y.-based HomeData Corp.

Almost one-third of U.S. homeowners who bought in the last five years owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth, according to Zillow.com, a Seattle-based provider of home valuations.

The Central Valley and Inland Empire drove foreclosure activity in California, RealtyTrac said, with one in 182 households in foreclosure statewide. In Nevada, the bursting of the huge speculative bubble in Las Vegas’ Clark County accounted for its worse showing in the nation.