Best Blogs: Post-Election Real Estate Boom?

Did you miss some of the blogs this week on McLean Patch? Each week, we'll round them up in one convenient place for you.

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Here are the highlights from blogs that ran Nov. 5 to Nov. 9.

"Election Day: Why Northern Virginia Matters"

• Ivy Main writes, "Voters in Northern Virginia have a tough time making their voices heard at the state level. The General Assembly in Richmond is controlled largely by downstate legislators, who manipulate committee assignments to marginalize Northern Virginia’s delegates and senators. This makes it harder for us to get legislation passed that we care about, and harder to defeat bills that impose new burdens on us."
• "The presidential election is different. Because the popular vote will determine whether Virginia goes “red” or “blue,” every vote in the state matters equally."
• Read the full post here.

"Hit or Myth? Is there a Post-Election Real Estate Boom?"

• David Howell, of McEnearney Associates, Inc., writes this week about whether or not the "real estate market in the metro area really picks up after national elections, especially in Presidential election years."
• "So, if there is a change in the White House and another historically major change in Congress, we could see as many as 2,500 homes changes hands in 2013 because of the elections.  And that’s being very generous – based on our experience, we think that number will be considerably less."
• "From our perspective, the post-election “boom” is a myth, and one should not base one’s housing decisions on the supposed impact of the election."
• Read the full post here.

• Christopher Hassett writes, "Buying organic is worth the difference in cost, since in doing so we support an entire range of practices that benefit not only our bodies but the long-term health of the planet."
• "Consider as well the produce in our markets that is now as contaminated with pesticides as the groundwater used to cultivate it.  Consider farmers who breathe in these pesticides, pesticides they are forced to buy lest they be promptly muscled out of the business, only to die at alarmingly high rates from respiratory disease, organ failure and cancer."
• "But if the dollar remains your fixed bottom line, and I understand how this is the reality for many of us today, then not everything you buy need be organic.  For purely ethical reasons I still strongly encourage all animal products be purchased organic, no matter the difference in cost. "
• Read the full post here.