Your apartment hunt, now with more (and more) data!
Real estate search sites have been around for years, letting users mine data on everything from the percentage of singles in their neighborhood to the year their building was constructed. But a new generation is offering home-hunters a look at the kind of nitty gritty demographic data that, in some cases, brokers are prohibited from discussing by federal discrimination laws, as the New York Times reported yesterday.
One example is Homefacts, which allows users to see the location of the neighborhood's polluters and sex offenders, and NeighborhoodScout, which offers data on poverty rates. And the info is likely to get even more detailed: Homefacts is working on offering property-specific information, like whether there was ever a fire in the home, and NeighborhoodScout is trying to foresee the future, like whether gentrification is on its way, the paper reports.
That said, the sites seem geared more toward a national audience than New Yorkers, and some of the information is behind paywalls.
Related:
Real Estate Apps: The 7 best for New Yorkers
PropertyShark quicktip: Look up schools (and school zones) near any address
Revamped website Address Report mines public data for the scoop on your next rental
