Though some signs point to an improving economy, foreclosure rates are not one of those positive signs — not yet.

In Hall County, rates are higher this year than at the same time last year. In March, 340 foreclosures were advertised in The Times; last March there were 270.

“I think we’re going to see a high number of foreclosures in the first half of the year as banks continue to clean up their portfolios,” said Frank Norton Jr., president of The Norton Agency.

According to RealtyTrac, a database of nationwide foreclosures, one in 418 housing units received a foreclosure notice in February, bringing the total stock of foreclosed homes to 2 million. In Georgia, the average was one in every 330 housing units, bringing the number of foreclosed properties to more than 82,000.

“About a third of those foreclosures are most likely related to subprime mortgages,” Norton said. “We’re also still seeing about 20 percent of foreclosures being builder-developer related.”

“We’re predicting that foreclosure rates will be slower in the second half of the year, unless we see an uptick in unemployment.”

Higher unemployment rates tend to equal higher foreclosure rates as more people are unable to afford their mortgage. In February 2009 when Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.7 percent, the foreclosure rate was 1.43 percent. When unemployment hit 10.5 percent a year later, the foreclosure rate jumped to 2.67 percent.

But state labor officials are predicting unemployment rates are nearing a turning point.

“Georgia’s job market has reached a critical inflection point,” Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond recently said. “Stabilizing unemployment rates and significant declines in new layoffs suggest that we are on the threshold of sustainable job growth.”