Canada’s Maramihang Listahan ng Serbisyo sites — the nationwide Realtor.ca and its Vancouver-based sibling Realtylink.org — are getting some new competition.

Habang ang mga mahusay na itinatag online tool ay napakahalaga para sa bahay-hunters, several new sites are also worth a look if you’re looking to buy a home sa Canada.

Billing itself as “Home Search sa mga Smarts” and operating in major cities across Canada, cool-looking Zoocasa.com has useful map-based search options as well as information about neighborhoods and local schools. Even though its listings aren’t yet as comprehensive as the MLS sites, it’s still worth a look. BlogTO has a review of Zoocasa.com here.

BlockTalk.ca is a good source of neighborhood demographic information if you’re house-hunting in Vancouver (the only city where it’s operating so far). Maaari itong sabihin sa iyo, halimbawa, that the largest percentage of households in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighborhood are “Electric Avenues,” which it defines as young upper-middle-class urban singles, habang “Young Digerati” — young and well-off urban trendsetters — dominate the Coal Harbour area downtown.

This article in the Vancouver Sun has more information about these two sites.

Larawan © Carolyn B. Heller