Hope now?

Foreclosures rose 57 percent in January, to 233,001, from a year earlier, and up 8 percent from December, reports RealtyTrac, an online real-estate-data company.

More troubling, the number of bank repossessions rose 90 percent, to 45,327 in January. The states with the highest number of foreclosures were again Nevada, California, and Florida.

More gloomy signs on housing were seen in a closely watched measure of home values. The Case-Shiller National Home Price index fell 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, Standard & Poor's reported today.

On the foreclosure data, James J. Saccacio, chief executive of RealtyTrac, noted that "the 8 percent monthly increase in January is not as precipitous as the 19 percent spike we saw in January of 2007, and several key states actually experienced decreasing foreclosure activity from the previous month. It could be that some of the efforts on the part of lenders and the government—both at the state and federal level—are beginning to take effect."

Earlier this month, Treasury secretary Henry Paulson announced a plan as part of the Hope Now Alliance program for the nation's biggest mortgage lenders to send letters to homeowners who are more than 90 days delinquent on payments. The homeowner has 10 days to respond, and in some cases they will get a pause in the foreclosure process so that new terms can be worked out.

That program has been criticized for not doing enough, and more ambitious proposals are being discussed in Congress.

In the meantime, some states and municipalities, such as Massachusetts and Seattle, have been trying to aid troubled homeowners, reports William Yardley of the New York Times.

Some of these efforts, however, "have met resistance from people who consider the assistance undeserved and adamantly oppose anything that resembles a taxpayer bailout," the Times says.

The slide in home prices is swelling the tide of foreclosures. Late last week, Moody's Economy.com estimated that 8.8 million homes, or 10.3 percent of the total, are worth less than the mortgage on them. That percentage is more than double the number a year ago.

The Case/Shiller report found that 17 out of the 20 biggest metropolitan regions in the United States had annual declines in housing prices.

"Wherever you look, things look bleak," said Robert Shiller, professor at Yale University and chief economist at MacroMarkets.

Miami was again the weakest market, reporting a double-digit annual decline of 17.5 percent, followed by Las Vegas and Phoenix, which each had declines of 15.3 percent. 

The new data should make a House hearing on compensation to mortgage executives, to be held on Thursday, even more interesting. Angelo Mozilo, the co-founder and chief executive of Countrywide, has been asked to testify.

So it was probably wise that Countrywide Financial, the nation's biggest mortgage lender, canceled plans for a trip to the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch ski resort for about 30 mortgage bankers.

Rooms at the resort in Avon, Colorado, start at $750 for a weekday night.

Also on Portfolio:
The Bankers' BailoutPast Government Bailouts
Subprime Meltdown Excuses