NEW YORK - January 15, 2009 – U.S. home foreclosures, the epicenter of the global financial crisis, spiked 81 percent in 2008 despite efforts to slow the "tsunami," a data tracking firm said Thursday.

National foreclosure filings - default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions - totaled 3.16 million and were reported on 2.33 million properties last year, said RealtyTrac, an Irvine, California-based company.

One in 54 housing units, or 1.84 percent of all U.S. housing units, received at least one foreclosure filing during the year, up from 1.03 percent in 2007, the firm said.

In December alone, foreclosure filings spiked 17 percent from the previous month to 303,410 properties. That was nearly 41 percent higher than in December 2007.

On a quarterly basis, foreclosure activity in the fourth quarter fell nearly four percent from the third quarter but was still nearly 40 percent higher than a year ago.

"State legislation that slowed down the onset of new foreclosure activity clearly had an effect on fourth quarter numbers overall, but that effect appears to have worn off by December," said James Saccacio, chief executive of RealtyTrac.