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One in 10 American homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments or were in foreclosure during the third quarter as the world's largest economy shed jobs, and real estate prices tumbled.

The share of mortgages 30 days or more overdue rose to a seasonally adjusted 6.99 percent, while loans already in foreclosure rose to 2.97 percent, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a report Friday. Both were all-time highs in a survey that goes back 29 years.

The U.S. economy shed 1.91 million jobs in the first 11 months of the year, and people who couldn't pay their mortgages had a harder time selling their property because of falling home prices.

"Until we see a turnaround in the job situation, we're not going to see these numbers improve," said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist of the Washington-based bankers group.

New foreclosures fell to 1.07 percent from 1.08 percent in the second quarter as some states enacted laws to temporarily stop home repossessions and lenders increased efforts to modify the terms of loans, Brinkmann said. That also led to an increase in loans with payments 90 days or more overdue.

"We're seeing more loans build up in the 90-days bucket as lenders work to modify loans and states put in place programs that delay foreclosures," Brinkmann said.

U.S. home sales and prices began to tumble in 2006 after a five-year boom, dragging the economy into a recession that began in December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research said this week.

The median home price in the fourth quarter probably will be $190,300, down 19 percent from the record $226,800 in the second quarter of 2006, according to a Nov. 24 forecast by Fannie Mae, the world's largest mortgage buyer.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Thursday urged using more taxpayer funds for new efforts to prevent home foreclosures, saying the private sector is incapable of coping with the crisis on its own.

The Fed chief outlined four possible options, including buying delinquent mortgages and providing bigger incentives for refinancing loans. He called for addressing the "apparent market failure" in which lenders aren't modifying mortgages even in cases where it's in their own economic interest to do so.

There were 111.7 million occupied housing units in the U.S. in the third quarter, 68 percent used by owners and the remainder leased by renters, according to the Census Bureau. One in three U.S. homes has no mortgage, the bureau said.

The bankers' report cites percentages without providing the number of mortgages. The United States had $11.3 trillion in outstanding home loans at the end of June, according to Federal Reserve data. Mortgage lending fell to $80.8 billion in the second quarter, down from $764 billion a year earlier, the Fed said.

The Mortgage Bankers report is based on a survey of 45.5 million loans by mortgage companies, commercial banks, thrifts, credit unions and other financial institutions.