Foreclosure filings in Colorado during the first half of 2011 fell 28.2% and foreclosure sales declined 13%. The Colorado Division of Housing said Thursday the state saw 15,348 foreclosure filings from January through June, down from 21,369 in the first half of 2010. Foreclosure sales at auction decreased 13% during the first six months of the year to 10,938 from 12,573 a year ago. “While some of the decrease in foreclosure activity is due to the banks processing foreclosures more slowly, there are also reasons to believe that there are in fact fewer people actually getting behind on their payments,” said Ryan McMaken, a spokesman with the Colorado Division of Housing. “Consequently, the number of new households entering the foreclosure process is down quite a bit from any other year since 2007. But, the fact that foreclosure sales at auction are holding steady tells us that there are still a lot of properties in the foreclosure process that must be dealt with.” In the second-quarter, foreclosure filings dropped to their second-lowest level since the first quarter of 2007. Filings are down 42% from a peak of 12,000 new foreclosures in the third quarter of 2009. Overall, foreclosure filings year-over-year are down in 48 of Colorado’s 64 counties, according to the agency’s second-quarter results. Write to: Kerri Panchuk.