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The following represents a very cursory listing of real estate sites.  Depending on your particular area of interest you can easily find many, many more. Note: Web site addresses change, disappear, and get moved.  No guarantee is given as to the accuracy or existence of the following sites. First and foremost, the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Real Estate Appraisers. While every effort is made to keep the site current, particularly in terms of educational approvals, recent course/seminar offerings may not appear on here immediately. Regulatory Agencies  HUD.gov FDIC.gov  Office of Thrift Supervision The Appraisal Foundation The Appraisal Subcommittee (including Appraiser Registry)  Federal Housing Administration/HUD  Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System  Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation  The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development  The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency  The Office of Thrift Supervision  The National Credit Union Administration  FannieMae  FreddieMac  National Association of Realtors    New England Appraisal Boards Massachusetts Maine New Hampshire: Email Sally Sullivan at NHREAB@juno.com New York Vermont Other Appraisal Organizations The Appraisal Institute American Society of Appraisers National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors International Association of Assessing Officers The Appraisal Foundation has an enjoyable and essential site.  The Appraisal Subcommittee oversees the Foundation. The Massachusetts Board of Real Estate Appraisers (MBREA) offers courses and benefits for appraisers. In addition to their main site at www.mbrea.org, MBREA offers a listserv site at www.mbrea.info. Registries  The Mass. Registry of Deeds site includes links to all district offices in the state. Town Assessing Sites  Many town assessing sites are online and more will follow. Quality and quantity of information vary. As useful as these sites may be, their use does not replace careful primary research, field confirmation, interviews, and basic due diligence. Other Assessing-Related Sites  Vision Appraisal Patriot Properties Massachusetts Property Tax Assessors, by County Federal Government  The federal government has many web sites with more information than you could possible digest in a lifetime. Here is a rather partial list of sites of interest. The Senate The House The Census Bureau These sites are useful if you want to find out more about general or specific items under consideration in the legislative branch.  Also, these sites make it easy to contact members of the House or Senate. Access to the judicial branch is accomplished as follows: http://www.uscourts.gov Other useful federal government sites are as follows: The General Accounting Office is the investigative arm of Congress. Charged with examining matters relating to the receipt and disbursement of public funds, GAO performs audits and evaluations of Government programs and activities. The site includes several sections including GAO FraudNET which is designed to report allegations of fraud, waste, abuse or mismanagement of federal funds. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a large site with tremendous amounts of data. You can get various snapshots of local, regional economies. Once on the site, point to: Most Requested Series, then to Regional I Boston. There is a FTP server for downloading large databases.  There are also instructions on how to do this. State Government  This is the site which contains Massachusetts community information: http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/. While useful, much of this information is dated, particularly with respect to housing and income data. Employment data can be found on: http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/det/lmi This site takes a little bit of digging but the information contained in here is terrific if you happen to like (or need) current and past (+ 10 years ) labor force and unemployment data. No governmental list would be complete without http://www.whitehouse.gov Other Real Estate Sites The Warren Group St. Louis Federal Reserve (good source of financial rates) BostonRealEstate.com. A comprehensive directory of real estate properties throughout Massachusetts. Search for Apartments, Homes, Commercial, Office Space, Retail, Land and more. Search Engines Google Yahoo has a lot of chat groups, including real estate related ones.   MSN is the default search engine for Internet Explorer. You can always use the Internet Explorer search.  But results vary. Always try looking for the same info on several different search engines.  It's a good practice, since the search engines have different methods and preferences.  This is especially true if your topic is a bit esoteric. Nearly all newspapers and media outlets have web sites. Many of them have sophisticated ways to look up articles and information. There are countless email newsletter, headline services, most of which are free. They can be a very cheap and efficient way to stay on top of various topics of interest, work-related or not. Most are easily subscribed and unsubscribed from. Try the MBREA mailing list at www.mbrea.info.   Media Sites Banker and Tradesman New England Real Estate Journal Inman News New York Times Wall Street Journal Property Valuation Advisors General News Headlines MSNBC CNN Environmental Mass. DEP Appraisal Regulatory Sites FIRREA (as amended) FIRREA "Chrono-History" Appraisal Subcommittee (Appraiser Registry) State Board Web Sites Surveys/Overviews FDIC Regional Outlook: FDIC and FFIEC Office/Industrial Trends: Spaulding and Slye and Meredith and Grew Retail Trends: Finard and Company Cities and Towns State Data (Various Levels) General Town Information State Town Summaries Other Useful Sites Unemployment Overhead Photos Using the Internet in Appraisal Assignments Location: Mapquest People and Businesses: Anywho  Census Tracts: http://www.FFIEC.gov Title References : http://www.mass-doc.com/land_registry_dir.htm or http://www.state.ma.us/sec/rod/rodidx.htm RE Taxes : http://www.bostonapartmentmarket.com/Directory/ma_property_assessor_info_online.htm or http://www.cpadvantage.com/propertytaxes/stateofmassachusetts.asp Also, individual town web sites Economic Data: http://www.detma.org/lmi/default.htm and U.S. Census Bureau  Unemployment: http://www.detma.org/lmi/laus/monthly/laus0208.txt Population: http://yourtown.boston.com/ Town Data: http://www.detma.org/lmi/Default.htm Price Trends: The Warren Group and MLSPIN - see below Zoning:  http://www.Ordinance.com Soils Data: http://www.state.ma.us/mgis/st_soi.gif Floodmaps: http://www.Floodinsights.com Aerial Photos: http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/AdvFind.aspx Building Code: http://www.state.ma.us/bbrs/code.htm Valuation Cost Data: http://www.marshallswift.com/index.asp Comparable Data: MLSPIN  Market Statistics: MLSPIN Assessors' Web Sites: by town, or compilation Web Access to Online Data : The Warren Group Maps: http://www.delorme.com Appraisal Foundation HUD/FHA Mass Board of Real Estate Appraisers: main web site and listserv site. (The MBREA listserv, or electronic mailing list, provides news and information of interest to real estate appraisers.)

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