Mansions for Sale in Virginia

General
The Commonwealth of Virginia is located on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography of the state is shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, home to much of the state's flora and fauna. The capital of the commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The state population is nearly eight million.

Economy
Virginia's economy is well balanced with many diverse sources of income, made up of 4.1 million civilian workers. One-third of Virginia's jobs are in the service sector. In 2006, Forbes Magazine named Virginia the best state in the nation for business. The Gross Domestic Product of Virginia was $383 billion in 2007. As of 2000, Virginia had the highest number of counties in the top one-hundred wealthiest jurisdictions in the United States based upon median income. Virginia has eighteen total Fortune 500 companies, ranking the state tenth nationwide.

Virginia has the highest concentration of technology workers of any state. Computer chips became the state's highest-grossing export in 2006, surpassing its traditional top exports of coal and tobacco, combined. Northern Virginia, once considered the state's dairy capital, now hosts software, communication technology, and consulting companies. The Dulles Technology Corridor near Dulles International Airport has a high concentration of Internet, communications and software engineering firms. Northern Virginia's data centers currently carry more than 50% of the nation's Internet traffic, and by 2012 Dominion Power expects that 10% of all electricity it sends to Northern Virginia will be used by the region's data centers alone. Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Northern Virginia have the highest and second highest median household income, respectively, of all counties in the United States as of 2006.

Taxes
Virginia collects personal income tax in five income brackets, ranging from 3.0% to 5.75%. The sales and use tax rate is 5%. The tax rate on food is 2.5%. There is an additional 1% local tax, for a total of a 5% combined sales tax on most Virginia purchases and a combined tax rate of 2.5% on food. Virginia's property tax is set and collected at the local government level and varies throughout the commonwealth. Real estate is taxed at the local level based on one-hundred percent of fair market value. Tangible personal property also is taxed at the local level and is based on a percentage or percentages of original cost.

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