WASHINGTON – Six years after the housing bust, lenders are still offloading homes that have been in foreclosure limbo. And they’re stepping up their efforts.

In October alone, nearly 60,000 of those homes were scheduled to be auctioned off by several banks, up 24 percent from the previous month and seven percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac, a housing data firm. That’s the highest level since May 2013.

These types of auctions do not typically attract traditional buyers. They appeal to investors with lots of cash who can stomach the idea of buying a home without stepping foot in it first.

Many of the homes are occupied at auction time, which means potential buyers often can’t determine houses’ condition before purchasing them.

While lenders filed notices about these auctions in October, not all of them will be sold immediately.

The reasons behind the uptick in auctions are different in every state, said Daren Blomquist, a vice president at Realty Trac. But the underlying theme is that banks are finally getting around to clearing a backlog of foreclosures that have been delayed.

Some of the delays were in states that require lengthy court approval processes for every foreclosure.

In other cases, states passed laws to slow down the foreclosure process or lenders bungled their handling of foreclosure documents.

In 2010, lenders were forced to halt all foreclosures while they addressed widespread mortgage documentation problems. Two years later, lenders reached a nationwide settlement with state attorneys general over their practices.

“The rise in foreclosure auctions indicates that the banks and the courts are preparing for a spring cleaning,” Blomquist said.