Backlogs in foreclosure processing are causing delays in home-price improvement and could wind up affecting the cost of a mortgage.

The situation appears worst in New York, where it takes an average of nearly three years - 1,072 days, to be exact - for a home to go through the foreclosure process. It's not much better in New Jersey, where it took an average of 931 days to foreclose on a home in the third quarter, according to statistics from RealtyTrac. Or in Florida, where it took about 858 days.

Nationwide, the average time for homes to spend in the foreclosure process is 382 days. That may seem better, but it's actually still an extended stretch compared with the average of 336 days in the third quarter of last year - and only 140 days in the third quarter of 2007.

Some experts think it'll be 2015 before foreclosure inventories begin to approach normal levels.

"As unpleasant as it is for everyone involved, when a borrower can't - or decides not to - make payments, the more quickly you can move (the house) back into the inventory and get a new homeowner in it, the better it is for the community," said Rick Sharga, executive vice president at Carrington Mortgage Holdings.

Processing times are generally longest in states with judicial foreclosure processes, where the courts are involved in finalizing the foreclosure.

In New York, the courts are extremely backlogged, said Allison Schoenthal, a litigator with Hogan Lovells who represents banks and other financial institutions in contested litigation relating to foreclosures. The state requires settlement conferences for all foreclosure cases, and that adds more court appearances to the bogged-down system, she said.

Florida's high documentation requirements and huge judicial backlog are also keeping completion times elevated, said Andra Ghent, assistant professor of real estate at Arizona State University.

"They don't have judges available, and they still have to give due process, even though in the vast majority of cases, there are few people who are being wrongfully foreclosed on," Ghent said.

In judicial states, it's possible that a peak in the foreclosure inventory rate was reached this year, said Mike Fratantoni, the Mortgage Bankers Association's vice president for research and economics. But the rate peaked in 2009 in nonjudicial states and has been dropping rapidly since, he added.

The longer time spent in foreclosure doesn't always equal more opportunities for the homeowner to get up-to-date and remain in the home, even if they've had a change in income for the better, he said.

If you're in a home not making payments for a long time, your taxes, insurance and interest payments may be building up, Sharga said. "Suddenly, you owe $100,000 more than you owed in the first place, and you would likely have a hard time becoming current."