Discover your community; online demographic research tools

Inspired by a post by Multi-site Revolution, here are the best online demographic research tools available.

• Best Places - Very best data on neighborhoods. The interface is not great or intuitive. Search by address or zip. Find valuable data: People, Economy, Housing, Health, Crime, Climate, Education, Transportation, Cost of Living, Religion, Voting.
• Yahoo Real Estate Neighborhoods - This is the best tool for ministries, search by zip code or address. Still provides only basic information.
• Zillow - Great for real estate listings.
• Dataplace
• Free Demographics - It is free, but it is painful to use.
• Neighboroo - Simple real estate data.
• Mapping Religion In America - Not very detailed, but very interesting.

I spent lots and lots of time with data like this when I worked in South Minneapolis. It does not replace riding the bus, walking the streets, shopping in your community as a way to get to understand it. (I found riding a bike to be a great way to get to know my city.) However, it will tell you lots of things that you do not know about your community. Use this data as just one of the criteria for making decisions.