It’s come to my attention recently that neighborhoods are the new battleground in the real estate industry. 2006 was more about listings, now it’s a matter of supporting the value of those listings with statistics to back up the listing data and provide consumers with the full picture.

There are many new websites out there targeting consumers looking for useful information on specific neighborhoods. Most of these new websites have launched over the past year. Here are the few that I know about.

• Neighboroo.com
• Localism.com
• NeighborhoodMatch.com
• City-Data.com (been around awhile and very 1.0)

These websites are a mix between general demographics, statistics and Realtor feedback. None have hit the nail on the head just yet. I say “Yet” because I believe they are traveling on the right track, but haven’t quite made it to the complete solution that consumers need to learn more about each neighborhood.

The success of these sites will be built on their ability to provide unique and relevant information for each neighborhood and to display it in simple organized manner that consumers can first find and then use to quickly determine which are the better neighborhoods to live.

The questionsbecomes…Which one of these sites will deliver on what the consumers need? Will Localism simply become an agent marketing tool or a consumer neighborhood tool or both? Will Neighboroo eventually go beyond killer maps and data mashups? Will NeighborhoodMatch be developed further into a destination portal with up to date listings and complete neighborhood data? Which one of these sites will win the search engine battle?

We’ll have to wait to find out. At this point the playing field is wide open with plenty of opportunities for each of these websites to win the Neighborhood Wars. Who will go into 2008 as the winner?