US home repossessions set a record in April while foreclosure filings dropped for the first time in four years, a sign lenders may be delaying new default actions as they seize properties, RealtyTrac said.

“Right now it appears that the banks are focusing on processing the loans already in foreclosure, and slowing down the initiation of new foreclosure proceedings as a way of managing inventory levels,” Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s executive vice president, said in an e-mail. “We’ll probably see this trend continue for a while.”

A record 92,432 bank repossessions were reported in April, up 45 percent from a year earlier and 1% from March, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac said today in a statement. Foreclosure filings, including default and auction notices, were 333,837. One out of every 387 US households got a filing.

bloomberg.com