Pittsburgh's housing market continues to outdo the national trend as it becomes clearer that more American homeowners continue to have trouble keeping up with their mortgage payments.

Data released yesterday by the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that 48 percent of the nation's homeowners who have a subprime or adjustable-rate mortgage are either in foreclosure or behind on their payments.

A record 5.4 million homeowners with a mortgage of any kind, or nearly 12 percent, were at least one month late or in foreclosure at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, foreclosures in the five-county area that includes Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties have been steadily declining since 2006, according to RealSTATs, a local real estate information service.

The number of foreclosures here has fallen from 4,318 in 2006 to 3,949 in 2008.

"We have had a two-year decline in the number of foreclosures," said Daniel Murrer, vice president of RealSTATs. "Our news is considerably better."

Pennsylvania as a whole has not fared as well, however. The delinquency rate for residential mortgages statewide was 8.32 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Pennsylvania ranked 22nd nationwide in delinquent mortgage payments and 41st in foreclosures started.

The Mortgage Bankers Association data also revealed a new trend that is driving national foreclosures higher.

Reckless lending practices in states such as Florida, California and Nevada may have started the foreclosure crisis, but the latest spike in such states as Louisana, New York, Georgia and Texas is caused by declining economies and thousands of homeowners losing their jobs.

The bad news in housing was tempered somewhat by a Labor Department report yesterday that said new unemployment claims last week totaled 639,000, lower than expected, but still at elevated levels.

Also yesterday, Freddie Mac announced a plan that would allow qualified people to rent their recently foreclosed properties on a month-to-month basis until they are sold.

The government-controlled mortgage finance company also said it was extending its moratorium on foreclosure-related evictions through April 1.