The number of homes repossessed by banks in Massachusetts climbed by more than 20 percent last year, according to new figures out Tuesday. But foreclosure rates remain well below levels seen during the mortgage crisis of the late 2000s.

There were 4,399 completed foreclosures statewide last year, according to real estate data firm The Warren Group. That’s up 21.4 percent from 2014 and the most in three years — though it’s a fraction of the number of homes that were repossessed in 2008, when the foreclosure crisis peaked in Massachusetts. The number of homes in early stages of foreclosure climbed last year as well.

The surge is driven by two factors, according to housing market watchers.

One, ironically, is Massachusetts’ healthy housing market, which is giving banks confidence that they can foreclose on delinquent mortgages and then sell those repossessed homes at a good price, recouping more of what they’re owed. The other is growing comfort with new state laws passed in the wake of the mortgage crisis that led many banks to all but halt foreclosures for a few years.

There are no signs, said Warren Group chief executive Tim Warren, of a new wave of borrowers defaulting on their mortgages.

“We are not yet concerned that we’re approaching another crisis,’’ he said. “The indications are many of these are old delinquencies that the banks delayed acting on, not a new glut of bad loans.’’

They are not hitting the state evenly.

Increases were biggest in outlying cities where the housing market has recovered more slowly. Foreclosures jumped 70 percent in New Bedford, 61 percent in Springfield, and 44 percent in Brockton, but fell in Lowell and Framingham. In and around Boston, foreclosures more than doubled in Dorchester and Everett while falling in Chelsea and Quincy and remaining at low levels in Roxbury and Mattapan.

Tim Logan can be reached at tim.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.