Upgraded Database Puts More Brookline Home Data on the Web

Snooping on your neighbors just got a little easier in Brookline.

Just in time for , the Brookline Assessors Office has revamped its online database to include a host of new features and information on every commercial and residential property in Brookline. The database, which has been online for several years, is already popular with appraisers, real estate agents, reporters and prospective buyers.

"This version is mostly addressing comments and questions people had with the prior version," said Gary McCabe, the town's chief assessor. "The next version will have more data."

Though most changes are cosmetic—dropdown search boxes and information organized by tabs—the updated database is also the first version to connect searchable data from the Assessors Office with interactive maps from Brookline's Geographic Information Systems office, known as GIS.

Brookline GIS has long offered a searchable map feature called Where am I?, but it didn't included data collected by the assessors office, including assessed value, sale prices, buildings condition and even the year in which buildings were constructed.

In future versions, McCabe would like make the databast interactive, so users can enter their own information, and add more data about individual units in multi-family residential and commercial properties.

"This is really just a step toward improving it using the resources we have available," he said.