The percentage of mortgages that were in foreclosure hit a record high in the fourth quarter, while mortgage delinquencies rose to a 23-year high, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday. A record 2.04% of U.S. mortgages were somewhere in the foreclosure process at the end of the year, while a record-high 0.83% of loans entered foreclosure in the fourth quarter, the trade group's quarterly survey found.

Subprime lenders that went out of business with the industry's collapse targeted minority neighborhoods, leaving them to struggle disproportionately with foreclosures and crumbling home values, according to a new report.

These companies' high-risk loans made up 20 percent of all loans in predominantly minority communities, compared with 4 percent of total loans in mostly white areas, according to the report released Thursday by an alliance of policy, research and advocacy organizations.

"These high risk lenders were targeting their loans to particular neighborhoods — to communities of color," said Saara Nifici of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project in New York, one of the organizations participating in the study. "That's where they focused their marketing practices."