Sept. 8, 2007 (LPAC)--In Loudoun County, VA, ground zero for the housing bubble collapse, a local newspaper finally took note. In the Sept. 7 Leesburg Today, the front-page headline trumpeted: "Loudoun Home Foreclosures In Triple Digits." Anyone living in the area knew this long ago, watching the "For Sale" signs gather dust on the lawns of local houses for sale.

A local clerk of the circuit court, Gary Clemens, told the Leesburg newspaper that foreclosures had leaped from 12 in 2005, to 139 in 2006, to a whopping 441 so far this year. There are approximately 100,000 single-family property parcels in the county, which means foreclosures affect 0.441% of properties in the county this year.

Property valuations were down for the year for many Loudoun County home owners as well, but there was no break for the average homeowner, as the tax rate increased from $.89 per $100 of market value for 2006 to $.96 per $100 in 2007.