Rhode Island’s foreclosure initiations nearly tripled during the first quarter as payments on adjustable mortgages rose and falling house prices prevented owners from selling or refinancing.

About 1,060 houses were advertised for foreclosure auction during January, February and March, up 282 percent compared with the same period last year, according to data from Rhode Island Housing. The state agency tracks legally noticed foreclosures. Not all properties advertised for foreclosure auction are sold by the lender.

The statewide median price of a single-family house in February fell 4.7 percent, to $245,000, from a year earlier, the steepest decline for that month since 1995, according to The Warren Group, a Boston-based research firm. House prices have now fallen for 11 straight months.

The Rhode Island Association of Realtors is scheduled to release its March house price data on Wednesday.

House prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell 10.7 percent in January from a year earlier, the most on record, declining for the 13th straight month, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index. A record 18.6 million houses stood empty in the first quarter, the U.S. Census Bureau said yesterday.

Government attempts to slow the flood of defaults “could be simply deferring another flood of foreclosures,” James Saccacio, chief executive officer of Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc., a seller of foreclosure data, said in a statement. “That could extend the length of time it takes the market to recover from this downward cycle.”

Of the nearly 3,000 properties in Rhode Island advertised for foreclosure during the 12-month period that ended March 31, 79 percent were in the cities and inner suburbs: Providence, Cranston, Johnston, East Providence and Warwick, according to Rhode Island Housing’s data. Providence, with 1,543 foreclosure initiations, accounted for 52 percent of the total.

Suburban and rural areas, however, are also experiencing more foreclosures. In Burrillville, for example, 79 properties were advertised for foreclosure auction during the recent 12-month period, the data show. In Coventry, there were 56. Even the most affluent communities were not immune. Barrington recorded 16 foreclosure initiations during the period and there were 8 in East Greenwich, according to Rhode Island Housing data.

Nationally, almost 650,000 properties were in some stage of foreclosure during the first quarter, or 1 in every 194 households, according to RealtyTrac.

Among the hardest-hit states were Nevada, Florida and, in particular, California, where Stockton led the nation with a foreclosure rate that was 6.6 times the national average, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

RealtyTrac data show that Rhode Island had 1,581 foreclosure notices, or 1 for every 284 households — more than the 1,061 foreclosure initiations reported by Rhode Island Housing. The foreclosure rate was 1 in 166 in Massachusetts, according to RealtyTrac.

Nevada led the nation, with 1 in every 54 households in default or foreclosure during the first three months of the year, said RealtyTrac, which counts default notices, auction notices and bank repossessions and has a database of more than 1 million properties.

California had the second-highest rate at 1 for every 78 households. Arizona had the third-highest, at 1 in 95 households. Florida was fourth at 1 in 97.

The most recent quarter marked the seventh consecutive quarter of rising foreclosure activity, RealtyTrac noted.

“What would normally alleviate the foreclosure situation in a normal market is people starting to buy properties again,” said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s vice president of marketing.

However, the unavailability of loans for people without perfect credit and a significant down payment is slowing the process, he said.

“It’s a cycle that’s going to be difficult to break, and we’re certainly not at the breaking point just yet,” Sharga added.

With Associated Press and Bloomberg News reports

larditi@projo.com