UPDATE 2-About 12 pct of US homeowners late paying or foreclosed

(Adds analyst quotes)

By Lynn Adler

NEW YORK, May 28 (Reuters) - One of eight U.S. households with a mortgage ended the first quarter late on loan payments or in the foreclosure process in a crisis that will persist for at least another year until unemployment peaks, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

U.S. unemployment in April reached its highest rate in more than a quarter century and is still rising, helping propel mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures to record highs.

Such economic weakness drove up foreclosures of prime fixed-rate loans, which are made to the most creditworthy borrowers. The foreclosure rate on those loans doubled in the last year and represented the largest share of new foreclosures in the first three months of this year.

"We clearly haven't hit the top yet in terms of delinquencies or the bottom of the housing market," Jay Brinkmann, the association's chief economist, said in an interview.

The pace of defaulting mortgages jumped despite various moratoriums and government steps to cut home loan rates.

Rates on 30-year mortgages averaged 5.00 percent in March, 5.13 percent in February and 5.05 percent in January, according to home funding company Freddie Mac. A year earlier, the average monthly rates were bumping up closer to 6 percent.

"The housing market depends on the employment situation," Brinkmann said, "and we don't expect unemployment to bottom out until the middle of next year, so then normally housing would not recover until after employment recovers."