For Buyers

free foreclosure listings

For Sellers

Popular Searches

by room dimensions

ocean / waterfront

Customized Lists

oceanfront communities

Online Resources

real estate news

local school news

relocation info

County Interactive Maps

Miami Dade Map

Broward Map

Palm Beach Map

Mortgage Center

mortgage process

free loan approval

Finding the Best Place for You

Every year, Money magazine does a survey of the best places to live in America. But can any single survey uncover the perfect place for everyone? Of course not, and Money now offers a personalized place chooser on their site, ranking the cities they survey against your desires in such areas as weather, cultural life, educational opportunities and health care. But even this isn't going to tell you everything or come up with the perfect place for you, so where can you look for more information? A great place to start is About's Cities/Town's Channel. Each of these local sites is run by a resident of the area who has gathered information on neighborhoods, cultural events, government and more.

Still have questions? Each of these local sites also has a discussion forum (like the one here at Apartment Living) where you can "talk" with residents of the area, ask questions or just see what's going on.

What Else?

Is education important to you? If you have school-age children, you probably want to find the town/district with the best schools in the area, right? There are a number of places you can go online to get details and comparative information about school districts:

• State Departments of Education have extensive information, not only about statewide curriculum and practices, but about individual school districts. Most state Departments of Education will also provide links to the official sites of local schools.
• American School Directory has listings for all public schools in the United States. Basic information for each school includes address and phone number, administrators, a link to the school's official page and number of students and teachers. Further information may added by the schools themselves, so detailed coverage is spotty.
• Yahoo! School Reports offers an easy interface to statistical information about a chosen school district.

Want More?
There is a lot more information on the Web to help you learn about a new region or find comparative information to help you choose a new home.

• Try starting with state and local government sites. This site provides direct access not only to the state government's home page, but to specific departments and offices.
• Interested in tax rates in your new area? This site provides income, excise, sales and use tax information for U.S. states. [most reports are in Adobe Acrobat format]
• Another great tool from MonsterMoving.com allows you to compare two cities based on such statistics as median household income, rent prices, high school graduation rates, climate and property tax rates.
• Public libraries can be a great source of information about a community. This site provides links to public libraries around the country.
• And don't forget local newspapers. Use this search at Newspapers.com to find out what newspapers and magazines are published in your area. Most include links to the publication's home page.