Officials at the Federal Housing Administration take every opportunity they can to assure the public that the agency is weathering the housing downturn just fine. But the latest batch of numbers show that defaults on loans backed by the government insurer show no signs of slowing. Loan defaults crossed the 9% mark in December, ending the year at 9.22%, up from 6.82% one year earlier and 8.94% at the end of November. Through 2009, the agency had insured 5.8 million loans worth $752.6 billion, or a 24% increase from one year ago.