April 23, 1999

As part of our ongoing efforts to make it easier to snoop on your neighbors, we present you this home price-check tool (part of Yahoo!, which is becoming the Swiss-army knife of the Web). It offers searches by street address or price, so you can determine either the going rate for the block of your dreams or which block you can afford to dream about.

Since the database – based on government records – goes back as far as 1987, you can also track price appreciation in potential future abodes.

Although the site's reach isn't complete (some states' laws prohibit disclosure of these transactions), it covers most of the Washington area, with the notable omission of Charles, Frederick and St. Mary's counties in Maryland.
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Rob Pegoraro rob@twp.com