In a sign that the mortgage collapse is getting worse, not better, foreclosure filings surged 65% in April from April 2007, leading some analysts to warn that the crisis might not end before 2010.

One in every 519 households received a foreclosure filing — the highest such figure since RealtyTrac began issuing foreclosure reports in January 2005. Nationally, 243,353 homes were facing foreclosure last month, RealtyTrac said. That amounts to roughly 2% of all homes.

Signs that the crisis is accelerating include sinking home values, rising foreclosures, swelling supplies of homes for sale and tighter lending rules that have shut out some who want to buy homes or refinance their mortgages.

"For the foreclosures to stop, inventories have to stop rising, and home sales have to rise," says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, who thinks foreclosures will continue rising well into 2009 and possibly till 2010. "We need prices to come down some more."