Allison Brophy has another great article  in the Culpeper Star Exponent taking a closer look at the real estate market and the state of foreclosures in Culpeper county. Culpeper's been one of the hardest hit counties in this part of Virginia.

And a timely article in Slate on why the argument that the sub prime mess is because lenders were forced to do sub prime mortgages by the government is hogwash.

There are some signs that lenders are anticipating President-Elect Obama's 90 day moratorium on foreclosures and voluntarily beginning to comply in advance. If your a seller this will be good news, at least in the short term! Prices may stabilize sooner than anyone anticipated. And, if these properties stay off the market, that stabilization may last.

While it would seem that at the end of that time you'd get a bunch of foreclosures hitting the market and driving prices down once again, I'm not sure that will be true. I suspect that during the 90 days plans will be made to permanently reduce the foreclosures to a trickle.

If you're a buyer, it means the number of great deals may be shrinking quickly. If you've been waiting for the bottom of this market, waiting any longer could get expensive.

I had the great pleasure this past week of sitting down with three students from the University of VA Darden Graduate School of Business. Sara Cerminara, Polly Howe and Katie Horsman are working on their MBAs and wanted to sit and talk about Culpeper real estate.

It was an interesting conversation and I was impressed by their questions. Even better, they got me thinking about what Culpeper could be and what areas for growth might make sense.

First of all, kudos to Culpeper for some of the work they've already done. Things like attracting the Library of Congress facility were clearly a great move! Culpeper clearly appears to have a head start over many surrounding counties in attracting the kind of businesses that can help their community grow.

Clearly Culpeper will need to focus on local economic development in order to continue to prosper. Looking to build a community based on commuters to Northern VA and DC would seem to be a poor long term strategy. And the more I think about this the more I think it makes sense to look more towards creating a community of interest between Culpeper and Charlottesville.

The corridor between these two communities is already seeing extensive growth. There is a good transportation route between the two communities. There would seem to be an opportunity here to work together to build something that doesn't rely on Northern Virginia or DC for growth, jobs, etc.

Given the educational, employment and commercial opportunities in Charlottesville, I believe Culpeper should be working to create a dialog with this community to foster closer ties. Anybody know of efforts already under way in this area?

Thanks, ladies, for getting me to think a little more deeply on some of these topics!