The percentage of home loans making their way through the foreclosure process jumped to a new record high during the first quarter of 2010, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday.

Despite the industry’s, and the government’s, all-out attack on the nation’s foreclosure problem, MBA’s regular quarterly study showed that 4.63 percent of outstanding mortgages were in foreclosure at the end of March. The first quarter foreclosure rate rose from 4.58 percent at the end of 2009. The foreclosure inventory rate this time last year was 3.85 percent.

MBA’s delinquency calculations also demonstrate a continuing upward trend. The percentage of homeowners with a mortgage who were behind on their payments but

not yet in foreclosure last quarter jumped to 10.06 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. The national delinquency rate was 9.47 percent at the close of 2009 and 9.12 percent at the end of the first quarter of last year.

According to MBA, the latest quarterly upsurge in past due loans was the result of increases in delinquencies for prime, subprime, and Veteran Affairs (VA) loans.

The trade group’s data show that 3.27 percent of outstanding mortgages were 30 days overdue in Q1, 3.39 percent were at least 90 days past due, and lenders initiated new foreclosure actions on 1.37 percent.

Together, loans that have gone unpaid for 90 days and those in foreclosure – the ones classified as seriously delinquent – account for 68 percent of all noncurrent mortgages in MBA’s study.

Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist, said, “Overall, we see a continuation of the pattern of declines in short-term delinquency rates, the continued historically high share of delinquencies that are 90 days or more past due, and a leveling off in the pace of foreclosures.”

Brinkmann candidly summed up his organization’s many pages of statistical findings with, “If mortgage delinquencies are not yet clearly improving, it also appears they are not getting worse. However, a bad situation that is not getting worse is still bad.”