Foreclosures continued to rise throughout the country, the state and the Bay Area in June, according to a report to be released today. Nationally, 164,644 foreclosure notices were filed in June, up 87 percent from June of last year, said RealtyTrac.com, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties. In the Bay Area, the number of foreclosure notices was 5,018, almost triple the 1,780 in June 2006.

“The big variable driving the numbers is the much higher-than-anticipated rate of default of subprime loans,” said Rick Sharga, vice president of RealtyTrac in Irvine. Subprime loans, which grew in popularity in the past two years, are loans to people with tarnished credit, as well as loans for 100 percent financing.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, aiming to strengthen fair lending practices, said on Wednesday it is creating a new Fair Lending Division that will review mortgage lending practices throughout the nation.

HUD in an announcement said it has hired a senior-level economist and has advertised to hire five fair lending specialists to enhance its capacity to investigate allegations of mortgage lending discrimination.