Nearly 10% of U.S. Homeowners in Foreclosure or Delinquint: Survey

The information comes from the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Delinquency Survey, released Friday. Here is more adding to the bad news about Foreclosures: Foreclosure Activity In USA Increased 75% in 2007.

Added to the number of homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgages, 6.99%, this means that nearly 10% of U.S. homeowners are in trouble with regards to their home mortgage.

Worse: the housing numbers show a weakness that will further exacerbate the ongoing recession, according to Jay Brinkmann, MBA's chief economist.

"We have not gone into past recessions with the housing market as weak as it is now, so it is likely that a much higher percentage of delinquencies caused by job losses will go to foreclosure than we have seen in the past," he said.

He added that “Until we see a turnaround in the job situation, we’re not going to see these numbers improve. We’re seeing more loans build up in the 90-days bucket as lenders work to modify loans and states put in place programs that delay foreclosures.”

The loss of 533,000 jobs in November, as indicated in today's job report, coupled with Brinkmann's comments, tends to lead one to believe the foreclosure and mortgage crisis will continue unabated for some time.