The numbers are out for July and it shows a very mixed bag! This is the first time there's been this sharp a difference between counties. Typically each of the counties have been trending in the same direction. But that's not true at all this month. We've got good news for some of you!

Fauquier County seems to be showing the biggest positive change. The best news is that the number of listings dropped from 865 to 805. The number of new listings added was lower. And the number of contracts written went from 65 to 71. It's a small uptick, but it's good news. On the down side, the number of solds actually fell from 65 in June to 58 in July. The change is good. It's too soon to tell whether it's a trend or a blip! And I would take the surge in contracts with a grain of salt. Given what's going on in the mortgage markets it's likely some of those will fall out due to an inability to get financing.

Prince William county saw the same kind of drop in active listings from 5703 to 5621. And, again, number of contracts was up slightly, number of solds down. The number of new listings coming on the market was also down.

Culpeper and Rappahannock didn't fare as well. In Culpeper it's still all headed in the wrong direction. The numbers on both active and new listings jumped. There are now 803 active listings in Culpeper, up from 784 last month. That's a new all time high. We added 145 new listings, up from 113 the previous month. While the number of solds went from 31 to 40 the number of new contracts written fell from 47 to 39. Culpeper continues to take the hardest hit in this market.

Rappahannock County always marches to its own drummer, but even they're feeling some pain this year. The number of active listings is at 83, a small number compared to neighboring counties, but a new high for Rappahannock. 14 new listings came on the market, down by 2 from the previous month. But zero contracts were written! That's a first since I've been tracking the numbers. Closed sales remained at a pretty average 3 for July.

The numbers are definitely showing a mixed picture but I hesitate to call anything a trend with only one month's data. We'll hope for good things for all the counties in August!