The Baltimore Sun's real estate blog has an interesting story on getting more information about a neighborhood's crime rate and school quality. First, it is important to note that this column does right by housing seekers by reminding both real estate agents and housing seekers that, "The federal Fair Housing Act prevents real estate agents from giving you information about school quality or other factors that boil down to characterizing a neighborhood."

The column then goes on to link to 13 different websites that can provide a housing seekers with info on a neighborhoods' crime rate and school quality. Thirteen! Click on any of the links, and you'll find any given website provides limited help. Old data, confusing numbers, and in some cases no data at all - you need to get on the phone with a police department.

But even for the housing seeker who takes the time to call each department and parse each statistic, they're still left with a narrow story about each neighborhood. Missing is information on neighborhood amenities, affordable housing opportunities, after school programs, grocery stores, financial institutions, etc. Only the most diligent, computer savvy, and bored housing seeker would take the time to compile all of this information themselves. Throw into the mix comparing and contrasting two neighborhoods and the task becomes nearly impossible.

As we've said before, this is where MoveSmart.org comes in. When the site launches, housing seekers will be empowered with a wide variety of data - including a contextualized crime rate normed for the region and understandable school quality stats - on an interactive map. While Baltimore residents will have to wait a bit before they can use the site, with a little luck and your support Chicagoland housing seekers will have access to the site later this year.