The number of homes listed for sheriff’s sale in York County has dropped to about two-thirds of its year-ago level, but celebration might be a bit premature.

It’s not clear whether the number is shrinking because people are rebounding from recession or because banks were scolded after a “robo-signing” scandal which revealed they were pushing foreclosure documents through without even reading them first.

Area housing professionals said a government crackdown that slowed the rate at which banks can process foreclosures might be delaying a flood of the sales, and that York still has a stock of the adjustable rate mortgages that caused many homeowners to default on their loans.

There were 347 new sheriff sale listings last June, compared to 233 for the sale to be held June 13, a 32.8 percent decrease, according to the York County Sheriff’s Office. For January through June of 2010, there were 894 listings. The number shrank to 689 for the same period this year, a 22.9 percent decrease.

The workload is diminishing at the Housing Alliance of York, which counsels people who are facing foreclosure. But managing director Jessica Fieldhouse said she isn’t expecting the break to last for long.

She said she suspects there will be an increase in filings after banks clean up the fallout from the robo-signing scandal.

When there will be an “authentic” decrease in York is uncertain, she said.

Officials and housing professionals have estimated that there were subprime mortgages still being written in York in 2008. The loans throw some homeowners into default when they adjust and the monthly payment jumps five years after the mortgage was issued.

-Reach Christina Kauffman at 505-5436, ckauffman@yorkdispatch.com, or follow her on Twitter at @dispatchbizwiz.