More cities are emerging from the blight of the high foreclosurerates that led into the Great Recession, but some of the gainsmight be threatened by looser regulation, a national real estateanalyst said.

ATTOM Data Solutions, a Los Angeles-based real estate datacompany, reported Thursday that 234,508 foreclosure filings —default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — weremade in the first quarter of 2017, down 11% from the previousquarter and down 19% from a year ago to the lowest level since thethird quarter of 2006. This year's first-quarter foreclosureactivity was 16% below the pre-recession average.

“U.S. foreclosure activity on a quarterly basis first dippedbelow pre-recession averages in the fourth quarter of last year,and this report shows that trend continuing for the secondconsecutive quarter,” ATTOM SVP Daren Blomquist said.