I ran into another interesting service yesterday that combines a Google Maps-like interface with location based data. It's a beta of a website called Zillow.com. What they've done is collect property appraisal and home sales data, etc. and combine that into some kind of formula to give you an estimate of what your home is worth - or anyone else's home that you can enter the address for.

This data has been available in my county for quite a while now, but Zillow makes it quite a bit easier to access. Type in an address and the map will zoom in to show you a map, satellite, or hybrid view of the property with floating dollar values on all the houses on the map. It's great for checking out how you house compares to others in your neighborhood and the values (at least for my property) seems to be realistic. For the address you entered you can click on a link and see more information like square footage, sale history, and a graph showing how the value has changed over the last year or five years. It even gives you percentages of where your valuation stands in your zipcode, county, state, etc.

Unfortunately, you can only get this detailed information for the address that you entered. You have to enter the address of other houses before you can see that information, but it does give you the estimated value for any properties you scroll to. This is a beta, so maybe more features are on the way.

Another interesting feature can be found be zooming out from your chosen property. As you zoom out to a wider view the engine averages the property values so you can see how your town compares to the average property value of the town next door. Zoom all the way out to a U.S. view and you can compare state property values. Pretty nifty.

I'll be keeping my eye on the site both to see what new features they add and to watch my investment (hopefully) grow.