Even bargain mortgage rates can’t help pull housing out of its quicksand.

New-home sales dived in December to close the worst yearly showing ever, while the glut of unsold new homes swelled to record levels.

The year-over-year results tumbled 50 percent in the Northeast and 47 percent in the West, the two worst areas for new-home sales.

“I am surprised they are this bad,” said economist David Crowe of the National Association of Home Builders.

Home prices also tumbled 9.3 percent for the steepest decline in four decades. The median home price fell to $206,500 in December from $227,700 a year earlier.

The bad housing news came as the number of people hitting the unemployment line hit its highest level in more than 40 years, according to the Labor Department.

The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the week ended Jan. 17 rose to a seasonally adjusted 4.78 million, the highest since records started being kept in 1967. That’s an increase of 159,000 from the previous week.

Meanwhile, new orders for durable goods dropped by 2.6 percent last month, steeper than the 2 percent drop economists expected. For 2008, the drop of 5.7 percent in durable-goods orders was the second worst on record.

Stocks and bonds tumbled on the news. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 226.44 points, or 2.70 percent, to 8,149.01. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 28.95, or 3.31 percent, to 845.14. The Nasdaq slid 50.50, or 3.24 percent, to 1,507.84.

Treasury bonds fell due to weak demand in a market already flooded with government debt and with record borrowing still ahead. “There is just an oversupply right now,” said bond strategist Andrew Richman at SunTrust Private Wealth Management.