The number of home foreclosures in Quebec has gone up.

They went up by about 35% in January from December, while the number of foreclosure notices went up 12%.

202 homes were seized last month, compared to 151 the month before.

According to the GDL credit resource, a real estate tracking firm, about 2200 homes were seized in the province last year.

But according to chartered mortgage broker Terry Kilakos it's normal to see an increase at the start of a new year.

"January is one of those months where a lot of the banks or creditors act on things they should have acted on in November but because of the holidays, they delay it."

Kilakos adds that when you look at the bigger picture, Montreal and Quebec are doing quite well.

"Even if that number was to go up 50% we'd still be looking at a very minimal amount of foreclosures in the Quebec and Montreal market."

He says it is going to be interesting however to see what happens to foreclosure numbers once interest rates start to go up.

"People will all of a sudden find themselves going from an interest rate of 2.99% to a rate of 5.5%. How many of those mortgages will be able to sustain that kind of an increase?"