I applaud Dan Wright (pictured to the right), and the Daily News Record (DNR) for running some local stories on our real estate market, such as today's "Feeling The Ripples" article on foreclosures.

In contrast to today's story about our local market, the DNR will often run AP stories --- which are written from a national perspective, and about markets that are usually quite different than the Shenandoah Valley.

As a quick aside --- if it's not immediately apparent whether the article is local, check the "dateline" --- the city that precedes the article.

And yet, despite my excitement for seeing a local article today, I can't keep from commenting on a few interesting parts of this story . . .

• The photo is a stock photo of a bank-owned home in Las Vegas. Apparently, even though foreclosures are really on the rise in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, they hide themselves well, such that they can't be photographed. :)
  
• The photo caption seems a bit backwards: "...The nation's housing bust has begun to be felt in the Valley, as well, sending local foreclosure rates higher." The "housing bust" is (partially) being caused by foreclosures --- I'm not sure I see how the housing bust would cause the foreclosures.
• In the article, William Wood, an economics professor at JMU, states that "Housing prices had risen to a point that a correction was inevitable..." and later, "...the Valley's correction was not as painful [as other parts of the country]." I'm not sure what correction William Wood is referring to, as average sales prices continued to trend upwards in 2007.

Again, it is fantastic to see stories in the Daily News Record about our local real estate market, as the national AP stories often paint a very different picture than that which we are experiencing in the Shenandoah Valley.  Keep up the good work Dan!