More than 8,000 American households are entering the foreclosure process every day, providing new evidence that the property recession in the United States is deepening.

The daily rate is the highest on record, with the total number of homeowners falling into arrears with mortgage payments up 65 per cent, compared with the same period the year before. More than a million home foreclosures are forecast for 2008.

Nevada emerged as the worst-hit state across the US, with one in every 146 households across the state filing for foreclosure last month.

According to yesterday’s real estate data from RealtyTrac, new filings for home foreclosure in April hit 243,353, up 4 per cent on March.

Homeowners file for foreclosure when they have fallen severely behind with their mortgage payments and have received either default notices, or have been given details of a date when their home is to be auctioned, or have seen their house formally repossessed by their mortgage lender.

Averaged over the US as a whole, one household in every 519 had filed foreclosure documents and is on the verge of losing their home.

James Saccacio, chief executive of RealtyTrac, said: “The total number of US properties with foreclosure activity in April was the highest monthly total we’ve seen since we began issuing the report in January 2005.”

The new data adds weight to a prediction by Robert Shiller, co-founder of the S&P/Case-Shiller US house-price index and a Professor of Economics at Yale University, that house-price declines in America stand a good chance of doubling before any recovery begins.

Professor Shiller estimates that real estate values in America have fallen by about 15 per cent already and may decline by as much as 30 per cent — losses of a size not seen since the Great Depression.

At the same time, Wall Street had to contend with official April consumer price data that showed that, stripping out fuel, the cost of living rose by a modest 1.2 per cent over the last quarter. The statistics underline fears that the US is already well into a recession, with prices stagnating as consumer confidence and demand dry up.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist for High Frequency Economics, said: “The core was held down by a 1.9 per cent drop in lodging costs [a third straight drop as holiday spending slows], a 0.2 per cent fall in car prices [expect more as car sales tank] and a 0.1 per cent dip in recreation. The big story here is core, still 2.3 per cent year-on-year, but the three-month annualised is a mere 1.2 per cent. Recessions do that.”

To add to the gloom, Richard Syron, the chief executive of Freddie Mac, the mortgage funding group, gave warning that conditions had remained challenging during the first quarter of the year. “It’s clear we have not yet hit bottom in the housing market,” he said. Mr Syron’s comments came as he admitted a third consecutive quarterly loss, deepening to $151 million (£77 million) for the first three months of this year, from $133 million in last year’s first quarter.

Freddie Mac, America’s second- biggest provider of funding for residential mortgages, is already sitting on a loss for the fourth quarter of last year of $2.5 billion. Mr Syron said that the group would try to raise $5.5 billion of new capital to help to expand its business and to act as a cash cushion during future periods of financial stress.

Investors were encouraged that relaxation of requirements by Freddie Mac’s federal regulator would let the company play a larger role in the mortgage market. Buddy Piszel, Freddie Mac’s chief financial officer, said the regulator’s move would allow it to buy mortgage securities at attractive prices.

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