DeKalb county foreclosure notices are on the rise.

Already in 2008 there have been 269 foreclosure notices filed with the County Recorder’s office.

This represents a rising trend compared to the year-long total of 341 in 2007.

Since 2004, the number of notices has increased an average 25 percent each year.

Todd Burghardt, President of the DeKalb Area Association of Realtors, insists that the numbers shouldn’t cause alarm.

“Overall, we are in no way, shape or form the same situation as the country,” Burghardt said, reminding that, “not all homes that go into foreclosure actually get foreclosed upon.”

Which is certainly true: of five foreclosure notices randomly chosen from this year’s 269, two were dismissed. Home owners can escape actual foreclosure with repayment plans.

And, according to Realtytrac.com, DeKalb County is below its neighbors to the North and East.

The Web site, which collects actual foreclosure figures, lists Winnebago County as having one foreclosure for every 458 properties, and Kane at one for every 358, while DeKalb has one for 555.

Still, 269 foreclosure notices only seven months into the year is a distressing figure.

“That’s surprising. Surprising, high,” Burghardt said.

One explanation for the rising number of foreclosure notices is unemployment.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, DeKalb County’s unemployment rate, as of May, is 6.3 percent, slightly above the national average, and up from last year’s 4.1 percent.

Another likely cause, says NIU Associate Professor of Economics Carl Campbell, is faulty mortgage approvals.

“A lot of the foreclosure rate has to do with people being approved for loans they should not have been approved for,” Campbell said.

“Marginal buyers,” or those with lower incomes and poor credit history, are granted mortgages they may not be able to afford. However, banks often sell mortgages for profit, so they are unaffected when the mortgagees default on payment.

But Campbell believes unscrupulous lending may not be long-lived.

“I think investors are becoming much more wary of buying up mortgages they’re not sure about, so it becomes harder to sell these mortgages that were taken out by marginal buyers,” Campbell said.