MARIETTA — News on foreclosures in Cobb is only getting worse with 1,178 homes in Cobb headed for the auction block in August.

August’s numbers are the highest this year, topping June’s 1,173 and February’s 1,127 homes published for auction. The 1,178 homes to be auctioned off next month are 8.1 percent more than in August 2011.

So far this year, 7,094 homes in Cobb have been published for foreclosure. That marks a 24.8 percent decrease from last year’s 9,437 homes listed for foreclosure from February to August 2011, a sign of improvement.

There were a total of 14,583 notices submitted to the Journal in 2011.

Legal notices for foreclosures must appear on four consecutive Fridays before a property can be sold at auction on the Cobb Superior Courthouse steps in Marietta. Foreclosure sales begin at 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday of the month. The next sale is Aug. 7.

According to RealtyTrac, which records foreclosure data across the nation, foreclosures are down 11 percent in the first half of this year.

There were 1,045,801 properties in the country with default notices, auction sale notices or bank repossessions in the first six months of the year, RealtyTrac reported. One in 126 homes, or 0.8 percent of housing units in America, had at least one foreclosure filing in the first half of 2012.

Georgia posted the nation’s third highest foreclosure rate in the first half of the year, with one in 63 homes having a foreclosure filing. Nevada topped the list, followed by Arizona.

“Most of these foreclosures are now getting bought up by investor-types who are going to end of renting and then gradually putting them back out on the market as prices firm back up or increase at a later date,” said Vinings-based home builder Jim Chapman.

Chapman – who builds in Cobb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Douglas, Hall and Forsyth counties – said the inventory of new homes coming onto the housing market is ever shrinking, but that he isn’t as fearful about competing against foreclosures as he has been in the past.

“You still of course need to be in a good location, building the right things and well-priced,” he said. “If you’re in all those situations you can compete against foreclosures and/or the resale market period.”