I'm going to take a moment today to acknowledge that this is my 400th blog post here! I've enjoyed every minute of it and have learned more than I would have thought possible!

It's been fun hearing from you. All of you are the reason this blog exists. The purpose remains the same now as it was at post number one. This is here to give you, the consumer, more access to information on real estate in general and on the Fauquier (Warrenton), Culpeper, Prince William, Rappahannock and Warren county real estate market.

The occasion of the 400th post is prompting some reflection and analysis and watch for some adjustments going forward that will hopefully make this blog even more relevant.

And, because I wanted today's post to have an upbeat feel, here's an article on what I believe is ultimately a very positive sign for the real estate market overall. Work outs for troubled mortgages have not been happening in anywhere near he numbers they need to. This points to better systems and processes to make that happen.

And, one more milestone occurs later this week. Next weekend I'll turn 50!

YeeHaw!

The New York Times has an interesting map showing the percentage of subprime mortgages by county throughout the US. I took a look at the rates for this area and the good news is that it could look a lot worse!

Here are some of the rates:

Fauquier County: 24%

Culpeper County: 33%

Rappahannock County: 21%

Prince William County: 33%

Warren County: 29%

Loudon County: 22%

This puts us in pretty good shape relative to some of the hardest hit states, such as Florida, Nevada and California. And, some of the counties with the worst numbers are in places where they did not experience the extraordinary surge in home values.

It's also not much of a surprise to see Culpeper and Prince William Counties among the hardest hit. In Culpeper especially, I expect there's still a lot of pain to come.