California Foreclosures in 2008 broke the previous record it set in 2007. There were close to a quarter-million properties that foreclosed in 2008 as stated in a report from ForeclosreRadar released on Tuesday.

A step before foreclosure is filing a “Notice of Default.” This consists of documents that lenders send to the homeowner that has missed their mortgage payments notifying them that the foreclosure procedure has begun.

This Chart from ForeclosreRadar in May of 2008 shows the dramatic rise in the number of people losing their homes.

In December 2008, the number of “Notice of Defaults” filed reached the same level seen during the summer of the same year. This means that a high number of foreclosures are on the horizon.

There was a plateau in the number of “Notice of Defaults” that was distributed. Some feel this was the results of the SB 1137 legislation that was passed requiring lenders to give delinquent homeowners at least 30 days notice before beginning the foreclosure process.

With the number of “Notice of Default” documentation that was sent out, it is evident that this legislation did not actually work, according to Sean O’Toole, the founder of ForeclosureRadar.

This Mashup from Hotpads.com, shows a heat-map of foreclosures in Northern California. Other Maps show foreclosure numbers via a map and density across the country.

Newer legislation and changes added into the recent bailout, put more pressure on lenders to work with borrowers to help to save your home from foreclosure.

O’Toole believes the problems lies in the fact that many homeowners are “underwater” on their home loan. O’Toole states that, “Lenders simply don’t have sufficient reserves to lower principal balances enough to help homeowners in foreclosure escape the prison of debt their home now represents.”

He believes that on average homeowners own upwards of $180,000 more than what the market value of their home is.

Santa Clara County saw the greatest increase in California. The county saw 6,268 foreclosures in 2008 which was 270 more than what the county saw the previous year. O’Toole credits this high increase to the fact that “there was very little foreclosure activity in Santa Clara in 2007 compared to other places that got an earlier start.”

San Diego Foreclosures were up last year and focusing primarily on raw numbers, Southern California was hit the most last year. In total, the foreclosures from 2008 reached close to $108 billion of outstanding mortgages.

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