Marin foreclosures tripled in 2008

Jan. 27--Marin home foreclosures more than tripled in 2008, a real estate tracking firm reported Tuesday.

The 440 trustees' deeds recorded last year, representing actual loss of homes to foreclosure, skyrocketed from 133 foreclosures in 2007, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.

Marin's 87 trustees' deeds during the fourth quarter of 2008, from October through December, was up from 40 foreclosures during the same period last year, as foreclosures in that period rose close to 50 percent statewide.

Marin's fourth-quarter figure, however, was down from the 149 foreclosures recorded in the county during the previous quarter of July through September.

Realtor Vince Gramalia, who specializes in real-estate owned properties, or REOs, for Frank Howard Allen Realtors in San Rafael, called Marin's 2008 foreclosure tally "unprecedented."

"We've never seen anything like this," said Gramalia, who said 80 percent of his business in 2008 was foreclosed properties. "We can't compare it to any previous time in Marin County history or probably the country's history."

Gramalia, who said most of his foreclosure sales at the moment are in Sonoma County, said "I don't see it getting better for a while."

Marin's 194 fourth-quarter notices of default, the first step in foreclosure proceedings, was down 13.4 percent from the 224 default notices during the same period last year. The figure continued a steady decline from the 248 notices of default the previous quarter and 284 notices