NEW YORK — Homeowners and economic analysts have been wondering how much worse the housing market could get. Yesterday they got an answer: Plenty.

Foreclosures are at a record high. Home equity is at a record low. The housing market is spiraling down with no end in sight.

For the first time since the Federal Reserve started tracking the data in 1945, the amount of debt tied up in American homes now exceeds the equity homeowners have built.

The Fed reported yesterday that homeowner equity actually slipped below 50 percent in the second quarter of last year, and fell to just below 48 percent in the fourth quarter.

That was just one example in a day of dismal housing reports.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said foreclosures nationwide hit an all-time high in the final quarter of last year. And pending U.S. home sales for January— those in the gap between when a buyer signs a contract and when the deal closes — remained at the second-lowest reading on record.

Economy.com estimates 8.8 million homeowners, or about 10 percent of homes, will have zero or negative equity by the end of the month. Even more disturbing, about 13.8 million households will be "upside down" if prices fall 20 percent from their peak. The latest Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index showed U.S. home prices plunging 8.9 percent in the final quarter of 2007 compared with a year earlier.

Hawai'i has fared better than most states in terms of home foreclosures. Although Honolulu's foreclosure rate rose 53 percent last year over the prior year, it was still the fourth-lowest among 100 major U.S. metropolitan areas.

There were 621 "foreclosure actions" made against homes in Honolulu last year, according to Irvine, Calif.-based real-estate research firm RealtyTrac.

The company said the foreclosure activity translated to 0.16 percent of Honolulu households entering some stage of foreclosure during the year.