The number of U.S. households facing foreclosure shot up 30 percent last month compared to numbers from February 2008, according to RealtyTrac, a company that tracks foreclosures.

About 291,000 homes got at least one foreclosure notice last month. The figure is up 6 percent from January, reports the Associated Press.

“At least for the foreseeable future, it’s going to continue to be pretty ugly,” a RealtyTrac official told the AP.

The fact that several mortgage lenders; including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with big banks like Citigroup and Bank of America, temporarily stopped foreclosing on homes in anticipation of the president’s plan to slow the nationwide housing debacle, didn’t seem to help reduce foreclosures.

President Obama’s administration would like to save up to nine million at-risk homeowners from foreclosure by refinancing their mortgages or reducing their payments by changing their loans.

Florida and several western states including Nevada, Arizona and California are being hit the hardest by the current housing crisis.