(RALEIGH) -- Foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac reported that foreclosures grew from December to January, but they were down last month compared to a year earlier. NC State University economist Mike Walden said there is good reason to believe that foreclosures will increase in the coming months.

"We did see some of the foreclosures put on hold as the banks were, of course, caught doing some things they shouldn't have done in terms of not getting the right signatures and so forth, so the thought among housing economists is there probably is a backlog of inventory that will be coming on," said Walden.

He did caution that even though foreclosures will likely increase, he does not expect them to return to the levels of a year to two years ago. Walden said, then the numbers were double and even triple of what was normal.