The housing and mortgage crisis has reached such epic proportions that its impact can even be felt in the temporary housing business. To see how this domino effect is sending ripples throughout all markets and trickling down to the temporary housing category, we should first look at the final 2008 foreclosure statistics, which tell us that there is no slowdown to the housing meltdown in sight.

In 2007 before the meltdown, the housing industry experienced a 75-percent increase in the number of foreclosures year over year, with just 10.3 of every 1,000 homes affected. In 2008, however, all of that changed as foreclosure increases continued to escalate.

Congress has taken measures to slow the increase. For instance, it has passed new laws to extend the foreclosure process, loan modifications programs, and holiday foreclosure moratoriums. However, there are still several indicators that this crisis continues. The Mortgage Bankers Association has observed a 7-percent increase in delinquencies on loans that are not yet in foreclosure. In addition, more than half the homeowners who received loan modifications to reduce monthly payments in the first half of the 2008 are again delinquent, according to the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision.