Take a look at an Internet map of foreclosures in just about any nook of the metro area, and you'll see a nasty rash of pin dots. Bank-owned here, auction scheduled there, pre-foreclosure there and there and there.

But in some places, it's more than a rash, it's a plague. For DuPage County, the pin dots are exponentially thicker in parts of Glendale Heights, West Chicago, Addison and Bensenville.

Rash or plague, it's everybody's problem when foreclosures start dragging down neighborhood property values. On top of that, it gets pretty unsightly when vacant properties are marked with foreclosure signs, grow shaggy lawns and start sprouting boarded up windows and doors.

To combat the issue, the DuPage's Department of Community Services has teamed with a Realtors association to find ways to maximize a newly approved $5 million federal grant that was part of the original federal stimulus package.

The $5 million will be split between four different programs, said Phil Smith, community services director. Roughly a quarter of it will go to a non-profit group that assists low income renters.

Another 25 percent will likely go to a Habitat for Humanity-modeled project. Another quarter of the money will go to the county's existing program that buys, rehabs and re-sells foreclosed homes.

"We are not interested in those homes that the market will take care of," Smith said. "If they are in good condition, they will be turned around. We are interested in the homes the market will not touch." And they'll be targeting areas of those four towns hit the hardest.

A little more creativity is involved with the last 25 percent of the grant money. The county, with assistance from the Main Street Organization of Realtors (MORe), will use that portion to maximize a federal program called 203K. Typically 203K enlists the assistance of various lenders who will agree to lend not only the original purchase price of the foreclosed, decrepit property, but also the predicted final, rehabbed value. This gets foreclosed properties more quickly fixed up and contributing to neighborhood property values.

"Here's the rub," Smith added. "203K has been around, but lenders aren't very interested. They don't understand it, and it's risky. But we have set aside money to do this. The Realtors brought the concept to us and they want to promote it. They have to bring in both lenders and buyers."

If they can successfully roll together all the pieces, Smith estimates that instead of improving 20 to 25 properties, they could eventually get at least 50 homes off the foreclosure lists that might have otherwise languished.

The county's role will be to assist potential buyers with a rehab plan and with getting through all the 203K hoops. The county's grant money will be used to assist these buyers with what Smith calls a "soft second loan."

"We are required to [work with] limited income people," he said. "The soft second loan will probably be more than 20 percent of the value of the home, which saves them private mortgage insurance."

MORe, he said, "would try to help us save money if we can get this program to work, and if we can get lenders to leverage the money a little more. If it goes off gangbusters, we could put more money into it."

Not every county in the U.S. gets this grant money, he said. "DuPage is actually on the low end" of a list of counties with the most foreclosures.

"We are confident it will go well," Smith said. "In many ways it's new, but in other ways, it's not. Except for the 203K, we have been doing this for decades."

Consumers can get the latest information on the new $8,000 tax credit and a host of other programs at the 17th annual free Home Buyers Fair, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday at the DuPage County Administration Building, 421 N. County Farm Rd., Wheaton. The fair will be hosted by the DuPage Homeownership Center, a nonprofit, HUD-certified housing counseling agency, and the DuPage County Department of Community Services.

Workshops will be held on topics such as mortgages, shopping for a home, understanding your credit report, short sales and foreclosed properties. At 10 a.m., DuPage Habitat for Humanity will host an application session for buyers interested in their programs. In addition, 30 area lenders, real estate agents, attorneys, community groups, FHA and the Illinois Housing Development Authority will have exhibits about their services.