The new year has left Tampa Bay mortgage lenders eager to clean house.

In February, lenders informed the owners of 2,361 properties that their homes would be sold at foreclosure auction. That’s nearly double the number of Tampa Bay properties that got such notices in January, according to California-based RealtyTrac.

All of the rise occurred in Hillsborough and Pasco counties, scene of some of the worst overbuilding during the housing boom. Banks also filed a rash of 3,880 fresh foreclosure lawsuits in February, fewer than in January, but at a rate little changed from a year earlier.

Here's the spread sheet showing all: Download Realtytracfeb10

Banks were accused last year of failing to finalize foreclosures for fear that they’d own too much repossessed real estate. If February’s filings are any indication, that attitude is changing.

You can't label all these soon-to-be repossessed houses "hidden inventory." Presumably, many of them were listed for sale when the homeowners fell behind on payments. I'm curious what will happen to the housing inventory when these are auctioned off.