A surge of foreclosure filings by 75% in 2007 from a year earlier as the mortgage problems and declines home prices continues to trouble homeowners. The foreclosures, last year reached 2.2 million filings last year. This is more than 1% of the total U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure during the year, up from 0.58% in 2006.

In December, foreclosure filings went faster 97% from a year earlier. The last quarter of last year has the highest quarterly total among the reports issued by RealtyTrac, Irvine, Calif., a data firm that tracks and reports foreclosure since January 2005.

December was the fifth straight month to have more than 200,000 filings, showing no hopes that the foreclosure filings will slow down.

A total of 642,150 foreclosure filings -- from notices of default to bank repossessions -- were reported in 2007's fourth quarter. That represents a 1% increase from the previous quarter and an 86% boost from the fourth quarter of 2006.

The number of foreclosures is expected to increase steadily through the second half of this year, when the next wave of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) -- the industry's worst-performing loans -- is expected to reset.

Nevada got the nation's highest foreclosure rate for the year, with 3.4% of its households in some stage of foreclosure. This is more than three times the national average. Florida, Michigan, California, Colorado, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Illinois and Indiana follow Nevada.

California had the highest number of foreclosure filings. Florida ranked second, followed by Ohio, Texas, Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada.

Even with the subprime-mortgage problem, lenders still managed to tighten standards, making it harder for people to acquire credit. In November, Mr. Saccacio said that "given the number of loans due to reset through the middle of 2008 and the continuing weakness in home sales, we would expect foreclosure activity to remain high and even increase over the next year in many markets."