According to a report out today from RealtyTrac, 1 in 54 homes received at least one foreclosure filing in 2008.  According to the USA Today, that is an increase of 81% over 2007. As we now know, a lot of Americans were taking on loans that were way beyond their means, and when the housing bubble burst, and their presumed home values sank, they could not keep up with payments.  USA Today has a good illustration of the growth in what they call "dangerous loans," or mortgages that were at least four times the applicant's annual income.  The number of these loans ballooned between 2000 and 2007.  The first map shows where and how many of these loans were issued in 2000:

And here's the map for 2007:

Maps by Brad Heath, Joshua Hatch, and Dave Merrill, USA TODAY

Bear in mind that the second map is for 2007, when as Brad Heath writes in USAT, "foreclosures and plummeting housing prices began sending shockwaves through the nation's economy." 

The size of those loans should have been a clear red flag, says Susan Wachter, who studies real estate and finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. People who borrow that much money are more likely to default on loans.  "It's the continuation of loans that were clearly designed to fail," she says. "In 2007, we were clearly about to go into a disaster, but ... the loans were still being written." On average, buyers in 2007 got mortgages that were double their income.

You can read the full article, and see the USA Today's interactive map of dangerous loans from 2000 through 2007 here.