Tracking local politics that affect the real estate market

Politics influence the real estate market – 

Things like impact fees on developments, qualifications of assessors and appraisers, tax credits for energy efficient or Earthcraft houses, exemptions for wells on properties under three acres, limitations of property tax rates, suspending water hook-ups during certain emergencies (the potential for abuse on this one seems particularly likely, and would definitely impact the real estate market), not to mention the Dillon Rule, and also whether or not you could use your fireplace if you lived in a densely-populated area, or whether you can give your 17 year old kid a glass of wine.

Simply put, knowing that there may be a tax credit for energy efficient houses makes me better able to represent my clients. Knowledge and information are power; being able to efficiently manage that information is equally powerful.

If you scroll down, you will see this new sidebar addition, showing the bills in the Virginia General Assembly that I am watching.

Courtesy of Richmond Sunlight, you too can track bills that affect you in the General Assembly; go to the new Photosynthesis page here.

I do wish there was a way to filter out all the commendations and celebrations, and I wonder how much each one of these costs taxpayers. Also, I’d like to be able to sort the bills by the date they were added. Maybe a bill requesting a committee to develop a task force to study how much each one of these costs? (please note the sarcasm)
I wonder if this could develop into a social network of people tracking bills, maybe even become a Facebook widget.

If we leave politics up to “everyone else,” we are doing ourselves a disservice.