Short sales, sales of homes for less than the amount of their outstanding mortgage debt, have tripled since 2008, particularly in California, according to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times.

The number of transactions had risen to more than 160,000 in 2009 from roughly 96,000 the year before, with more than a quarter of the transactions occurring in California.

The increasingly common transactions are projected to rise to 400,000 in 2010, and such sales will likely remain routine as the mortgage industry attempts to stabilize.