Erie County leaders have some advice for homeowners receiving pre-foreclosure notices.

The State Department of Financial Services says nearly 3,000 homeowners in the county received those notices in the last six months.

It means those homeowners could be two to three months or more behind on mortgage payments.

Kearns reported in March that 2,930 homeowners received pre-foreclosure default notices. This new report shows an increase of 1,600 Erie County homeowners in the last three months.

"We are trending in the wrong direction,” Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns said. “We are trending up. And as we trend up, there are 4,530 homeowners with mortgages in Erie County that have received a pre-foreclosure default notice in the last month..."

Kearns says the highest numbers of notifications are for homeowners in Tonawanda, Cheektowaga and Buffalo.