In August, one of out of every 298 housing units in Illinois had at least one foreclosure filing against it. That means 17,781 homes across the state were facing either a default notice, an auction or a bank repossession, according to RealtyTrac, a database company of foreclosure, auction and bank-owned homes.

Across the board, all activity rates were up for Illinois: Foreclosure starts increased 18 percent annually; scheduled foreclosure auctions were up 116 percent annually, and bank repossesions increased 41 percent year-over year.

It’s the first time Illinois has had the nation’s highest rate since RealtyTrac began releasing this report in January 2005.

Combined, all three categories of foreclosure activity caused an overall 29 percent jump from July to August this year. It was up 42 percent from August 2011.

The Chicago metro area and Rockford also ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, among metro areas having the highest foreclosure rates. (The top seven cities are all in California, and the tenth is Miami, Florida).

Check out all of the data at RealtyTrac.