DeKalb County experienced a foreclosure spike this past January.

According to Realtytrac, a company that keeps track of foreclosures and defaults in the nation, DeKalb County had 119 foreclosures this past January, or one in every 325 households. This was a dramatic increase from the 84 homes that were foreclosed in December, according to realtytrac.com.

“You know we were actually turning in positive numbers in October of ‘08 and November of ‘08,” said Rorry Heide, president of the DeKalb Area Association of Realtors. “I think our area was just behind. The high foreclosures just hit our area a little later than anybody else.”

This spike may have been caused by many different factors.

“The primary reason may be just that some of the loans were due at this time,” said assistant economics professor Jeremy Groves. “Or it could also be more industrial and that the banks wanted to hurry up and get finished before new policies and new administration went into place.”

Both Heide and Groves believe the stimulus package will help the housing market.

“It will help people that truly have to move for other reasons than foreclosing,” Heide said. “It will allow these people to move and people to come and buy their homes. What would have taken only 10 days is now taking two and half months.”

A lot of banks are also starting to restructure mortgage loans to accommodate these troubling times. Yet while banks are trying to accommodate people, they are also a business as well.

“It is not the bank’s job to help the person out,” Groves said. “They are not going to make money, and they are in it to make money. They don’t want to keep taking huge losses.”

Homeowners in the county are also feeling the effect of the housing crises.

“Money is really tight right now, and working in construction, I am not getting any work,” said Sycamore resident Kim Roberts. “There are no new construction sites, because no one can afford it, and there won’t be any new work for the next couple of years.”

Contrary to the spike, foreclosures are believed to decrease eventually.

“I think with the second release of the stimulus package, a portion will be going to foreclosures and stopping more homes from being foreclosed upon,” Heide said. “We need to keep people in their homes that don’t have to move to a new area.”