Exurbs hardest hit in recent housing slump - Feb. 6, 2007
There has been a lot of new HOA-style construction in the exurbs in recent years, and probably a lot of over-building. And now the oversupply is driving down prices, which shouldn't surprise anybody. But it makes bad breakfast table reading for those who just bought a new house way out there and now find out it may be worth less than they paid for it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- While the U.S. housing downturn has depressed once-thriving real estate markets around the nation, far-flung suburbs of major cities have suffered the most abrupt market correction. Home construction in these distant exurbs has slowed and prices and sales have fallen more than those of close-in suburban neighbors since a five-year U.S. housing boom ended in the summer of 2005. Average home prices in Loudoun County, Virginia, 35 miles outside of Washington, D.C., fell roughly 11 percent in 2006, according to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors. By contrast, Virginia's Arlington County, which hugs the nation's capital, saw a price decline of only about 2 percent. "It's been hard for sellers to comprehend, and I'm usually the bearer of bad news," said Mike Wagner, a real estate broker who works in Loudoun. "The news is: Your home is worth $100,000 less than it was a year and a half ago."