COLUMBUS, Ohio – For the third year in a row, foreclosures in Ohio declined, according to the state Supreme Court.

For 2012, common pleas courts across Ohio reported 70,469 new residential, commercial, and tax foreclosure case filings to the Supreme Court, a 1.5 percent decline compared to 2011.

The number of foreclosure filings increased every year, starting when the court began collecting foreclosure data in 1990, before dropping in 2010 to 85,483 from the all-time high of 89,061 in 2009 to 71,553 in 2011.

Cuyahoga County continued to lead the state in the number of foreclosure case filings with 11,427, the court data showed.