Drying laundry on a clothesline -- saves energy, but drops your property value?

Using an electric dryer to do your laundry can account for as much as 10% of your home's energy needs, but believe it or not many Homeowner's Associations across the country don't allow the line-drying of clothes outside. They put clotheslines in the same category as many other commonly regulated items like rusted or non-working vehicles sitting in driveways or on lawns. Alex Beam, of The International Herald Tribune, reports that hanging laundry outside can supposedly drop a property's value by as much as 15 percent. Seriously? Well so many Homeowner's Associations think so that such a thing as a "right to dry" laws exist in Florida and Utah -- protecting people's right to dry their clothes outside.

The most commonly sited reason for why line-drying is so objectionable seems to be the idea of underwear hanging out in public for everyone to see. But still, regulating something so basic, simple, and energy-saving seems a bit ridiculous to me. What's next? Rules on what kind of clothes you can wear while walking your dog on the community sidewalk? Let's not get carried away -- this is still America, after all.