There's a lot of fall out from the real estate market beyond what you read in the headlines. Sure, families are losing homes. Homebuilders are going broker or laying people off in droves. And, all the tradesmen who work on those homes are scrambling as well.

But there are some less visible casualties as well.

Newspapers are hurting. The big papers have gotten the press attention, papers like the Star Tribune from my home state of Minnesota. A lot of revenue for newspapers comes from the real estate agents and real estate companies who advertise with them. The truth is, a lot of that advertising should have been disappearing eons ago given how much less effective a medium it is these days for attracting buyers. But hard times has forced most agents and companies to cut back their advertising substantially, or, in some cases, stop it altogether.

And, while the big papers make the news when they're in trouble, the small, local papers are not immune.

The Times Newspapers here locally have cut staff. (Full disclosure: I'm a blogger for the Times Newspapers and a former columnist.) If you get the Fauquier Times Democrat or the Rappahannock News you've seen the size of your paper considerably reduced. In fact, given that the two reporters for the Rappahannock News are gone, the editor is leaving soon and the population of the county is not growing, how long can the paper continue to be economically viable?

We're not to the end of the carnage from this mess yet. The damage is more widespread than most people realize and hits industries no one has really thought about.

I saw today that a TV station in Charlotte, NC did a story on how the real estate market is increasing the numbers of homeless pets. As families are forced to leave their homes they often can not take their pets with them. Sometimes that's because they have to move into a rental that won't accept pets. Some families are moving in with family members and the home can't accomodate any more pets.

I've got calls into the local shelters to try and get a feel for whether we're seeing that same effect here locally. My suspicion would be that we are.

If you're thinking of getting a pet it's an excellent time to check out the local shelters. Here are links to some of them.

Rappahannock

Fauquier

Culpeper

Warren

Too many pets end up here in the best of times. In hard economic times it gets worse. If you can adopt a pet or just help them out with a donation, now's the time.