Media and politicians have declared over the past month: We have hit bottom! Although Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama Administration underestimated how bad the economic conditions of the nation were (didn't he compare it to the Depression in the 2008 election cycle??), others have said that the bad times were soon over.. we hit bottom. We're on the way up. If "up" looks this bad, I'd hate to see down..

Unemployment in the United States continues to soar and it's proving to continue to batter the already hard-hit housing market. . The market so bad it's deteriorating at a record pace, according to the American Bankers Association. And I think bankers would know..

According to reporting from Reuters, payment delinquencies were the highest since the ABA began tracking the data in 1974. Late payments on home equity borrowings set records, rising to 3.52 percent from 3.03 percent on loans and to 1.89 percent from 1.46 percent on lines of credit..

The ABA concludes that the biggest factor in the consistently bad housing market is job loss.. and job loss shows little signs of easing over the next few months...