Roughly one in 18 Hawai'i homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments or were in foreclosure during the third quarter as the local economy shed jobs and real estate prices slipped.

That compared to a record one in 10 homeowners with a mortgage nationwide who were either at least a month behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of September as the source of housing market pressure shifted from risky loans to the crumbling U.S. economy.

The share of mortgages 30 days or more overdue rose to a seasonally adjusted 6.99 percent, while loans already in foreclosure rose to 2.97 percent, both all-time highs in a survey that goes back 29 years, the Mortgage Bankers Association said yesterday.

The foreclosure crisis continued to be concentrated in states like Florida, where a stunning 7.3 percent of all loans were in foreclosure at the end of September, by far the highest in the country.

In Nevada, the number was 5.6 percent. It was 3.9 percent in California — compared with about 3 percent nationally.

Hawai'i had the 22nd lowest foreclosure rate at 1.67 percent.

Distress in the home loan market started nationally about two years ago as increasing numbers of adjustable-rate loans reset to higher interest rates. But the latest wave of delinquencies is coming from the surge in unemployment.

Employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, the Labor Department said yesterday. "Now it's a case of job losses hitting more across the board," said Jay Brinkmann, the trade group's chief economist.

With the economy worsening, the much-anticipated bottom of the housing market likely will be pushed further into the future.

"Things are going to get worse before they get better," said Northern Virginia housing economist Thomas Lawler.

Most troubling, he said, is that the mortgage bankers' report reflects conditions before October's stock market plunge and the resulting economic fallout.

Hawai'i's mortgage delinquency rate was eighth-lowest in the U.S. at 4.04 percent.

The percentage of mortgages here that were considered "seriously delinquent" — either in foreclosure or 90 days behind in payments — was 2.87 percent, or 12th lowest in the nation.

The figures released by the Mortgage Bankers group also showed foreclosures among so-called "prime" mortgage holders in Hawai'i was 0.69 percent here, or fourth lowest in the nation. That compared to "subprime" mortgages here, of which almost one in 10 were in foreclosure.

The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.