Dec. 6--A weakening Florida economy helped push 90,000 more homes into foreclosure in the third quarter, amid mounting job losses and falling home prices, according to an industry report released Friday.

Florida's foreclosures stood at 7.32 percent at the end of September, representing 261,027 homes, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported. The percentage of all homes in foreclosure in Florida easily outranked those of other states. Nevada's rate of 5.58 was second highest.

"Florida has lost 156,000 jobs [this year], the highest in the country, and that now is clearly driving problems in Florida in addition to some of the overbuilding issues we saw there," said Jay Brinkmann, MBA chief economist. He noted that speculation and poor underwriting had contributed to both Florida and California's high rates.

On Friday, the Labor Department reported that employers slashed 533,000 jobs from their payrolls in November. Brinkmann said the unexpected figure has thrown economists for a loop and many would be forced to chuck their forecasting models out the window when it comes to predicting a bottom in the mortgage market.

Unemployment "is going to have such a major impact on mortgage performance," Brinkmann said.

Many analysts had said foreclosures would begin tapering off in the third quarter of 2009, as home prices stabilized and after interest rate resets on most subprime adjustable-rate loans have taken place.

Nationally, about 575,000 homes entered foreclosure in the third quarter, with more than one in six in Florida, on track to hit roughly 2.2 million foreclosures by the end of the year, Brinkmann said. In addition, 6.99 percent of all loans were either 30 days or more past due. In Florida, the percentage was 9.11, up from 7.86 percent the previous quarter.

DRAMATIC COLLAPSE

Foreclosure figures over the past two years show the dramatic crash of Florida's housing market. In the third quarter of 2006, the total percent of Florida homes in foreclosure was 0.6 percent. It rose to 2.19 percent in 2007. It's now 7.32 percent, the highest in the country. The figure does not include homes that have already been repossessed by lenders through the courts.

The report comes a day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers more government intervention was needed to keep borrowers from losing their homes. As solutions, he suggested buying delinquent mortgages and creating bigger lender incentives to refinance.