Cobb County saw year-over-year home foreclosures drop for the eighth consecutive month.

According to listings reported to the Marietta Daily Journal, 630 homes will be up for auction at the April foreclosure sale.

That’s a 26-percent decrease compared to the April 2012 auction, when 851 homes were listed.

Year-to-date, Cobb has 1,995 foreclosures reported, which is 31 percent lower than the 2,886 reported in the first three months of 2012.

Tom Heyer, a loan officer with Brand Mortgage in Kennesaw, said about 40 percent of the homes for sale in the area are now foreclosures.

That is a reversal of about a year ago, when 60 percent of sales were foreclosures.

“I think they really have gotten word out to homeowners that resellers are selling,” Heyer said.

“It’s gotten a lot of people off the fence who are putting their homes up for sale — and they’re selling fast,” he said.

Heyer disputes reports that banks are holding on to foreclosed homes, with the intention of putting them on the market when conditions improve.

“Everybody keeps talking about this shadow inventory that hasn’t been real,” he said.

“I think the federal government has pressured the banks to modify their loans and work with homeowners as much as possible.”

The next foreclosure auction is scheduled for 10 a.m. April 2 on the steps of the Cobb Justice Center, 32 Waddell St. in Marietta.

Foreclosure notices are posted in the county’s legal organ, the Marietta Daily Journal, for four consecutive Fridays leading up to the auction, which is nearly always scheduled for the first Tuesday of the month.

The last time Cobb saw an increase in year-over-year foreclosures came at the August 2012 auction.

There, 1,178 homes headed for the auction block. That was 8.1 percent more than the number reported in August 2011.

Compared to 2011, when 3,894 foreclosures were reported for the February, March and April auctions, the number of foreclosures is down by 49 percent.