Leon d'Ancona is tired of hearing about doom and gloom stories about Real Estate in the media, particularly the US.

So he launched www.happyREnews.com.

"There is no doubt the US real estate market has taken a huge hit recently," he says. "The problem with glass-half-empty stories is that they have an undue psychological impact on markets that is not borne out by all the facts," he continues. "There are actually thousands of heighbourhoods in the United States right now where the market is very healthy, thank you."

When launched, the new website featured 2,319 markets in the US where homes are selling well.

Naturally, d'Ancona has services to sell to Realtors and a quick review of the site will reveal things like in-depth analysis of market trends and patterns, etc. He can tell you which types of houses are selling best, and how that compares to the market of four to 10 years ago. He can tell you which RE companies have the most market share i a given city; which office has the most productive agents; which sales rep sold the most bungalows on a specific street...and more. Heady stuff!

There's lots more tools for the interested Realtor but initially the stories are encouraging for anyone, even Canadian buyers who think we're going the same route. Have them check out a couple of the "good" stories. d'Ancona also can be contacted via www.realestatestatistics.com.

Robert J. Morrow is the editor of www.HamiltonHomeReview.com, the most comprehensive Real Estate e-magazine in the Greater Hamilton, Ontario area.