Newly delinquent mortgage borrowers outnumbered people who became current on their payments by two to one last month, a sign that nationwide efforts to help homeowners avoid default may be failing, Bloomberg reported.

In April, 73,880 homeowners with privately insured mortgages fell more than 60 days late on payments, compared with 39,584 who got back on track, a report today from the Washington-based Mortgage Insurance Companies of America said. Mortgage insurers pay lenders when homeowners default and foreclosures fail to cover costs.

Foreclosure filings surged 65 percent and bank seizures more than doubled in April compared with a year earlier as rates on adjustable mortgages increased, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Lawmakers and Federal Reserve officials are trying to ease the worst U.S. housing slump since the Great Depression through tax rebates, expanded federal mortgage insurance and other programs.

The value of new mortgages privately insured by borrowers rose 12 percent from April 2007 to $19.4 billion last month, according to the mortgage insurance group, even as the number of policies issued fell 27 percent to 108,322.

The top three mortgage insurers have lost more than four-fifths of their market value in the past year as the housing recession deepened.

The Senate Banking Committee last week approved legislation to create a program at the Federal Housing Administration to insure as much as $300 billion in mortgages for struggling borrowers after lenders agree to reduce the loan amounts.