The outlook for the housing market is a little gloomier following a report by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) stating that mortgage applications fell to a 12-year low last week. Loan delinquencies also reached a record high in the third quarter, Bloomberg reported.

Though the Nov. 6 extension of the $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time buyers drove sales of existing homes to a two-year high in September, a 26-year high in the unemployment rate is keeping some potential buyers out of the market and joblessness has pushed many current homeowners into foreclosure.

“I don’t think the housing crisis is over,” Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Economy.com, told Bloomberg. “I think we’re going to see another leg down.”

The percentage of home loans with one or more delinquent payments jumped to a record seasonally adjusted 9.64 percent in the third quarter, the MBA said in a report yesterday.

“Market conditions in the homebuilding industry are still challenging, characterized by rising foreclosures, high inventory levels of available homes, increasing unemployment, tight credit for home buyers and weak consumer confidence,” said Donald Horton, chairman of D.R. Horton Inc. the nation’s second largest home builder.

That company today reported a loss of $231.9 million for the quarter ended on Sept. 30 on $1 billion in sales.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 7.3 million jobs in the United States have been lost since December 2007, and the October’s unemployment rate, 10.2 percent, was the highest since 1983.

On Nov. 18, the Commerce Department said residential construction activity fell 11 percent in October to the lowest level since April.

“You don’t pay a mortgage with economic outputs; you pay a mortgage with a paycheck,” said Jay Brinkmann, the MBA’s chief economist.