I thought some of you might appreciate a post on useful websites for the housing crowd. You old hands out there know them all already, I'm sure, but hey -- you can hum a tune to yourself while I bring everyone else up to date. And then you can comment with useful sites I forgot to mention. Win-win!

In no particular order:

Real Property Data Search. Want to find out what homes sold in the last year on a street you're thinking about moving to? Wonder what the seller of a home you're thinking of buying paid when he bought? The state's assessors know, and they share on this site.

MdLandRec.Net. This site -- put together by the Maryland Judiciary and Maryland State Archives -- collects records such as mortgage documents. You need to sign up, but it's free.

Metropolitan Regional Information Systems' stats page. MRIS, which runs the multiple-listing service in the region, issues statistics every month about sales and prices. You can see figures by metro area, jurisdiction and ZIP code.

The federal government's House Price Index. Once run by OFHEO, now the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the HPI is an apples-to-apples look at prices in metro areas and states. It compares sales and refinancings of the same homes over the years.

Then, of course, there are many -- many -- sites that have real estate listings and related information. Craigslist. FranklyMLS.com. Google. HomeGain. HomesDatabase. Realtor.com. Roost. Sawbuck. Trulia. Zillow.com. (And that's just some of them.)

What sites have you found useful? Share, share!