apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Cyber snooping to make your inner city planner smile....A few weeks back we brought you the Elliman Open House calendar. Now we bring you PropertyShark.com, a deeply satisfying web site that allows you to get the municipal dope on any city building. Heading for dinner at your banker pal's new Park Slope "fixer upper"? Type in the address and get back the amount paid in property taxes, the dimensions of the lot, and intriguing information about "HPD" violations and "illegal alterations." Scroll down to browse other addresses using cool, color-coded neighborhood lot maps. And that's just the warm up. Under catchy headings like "Manhattan Auctions That You Just Missed," you will find borough-by-borough listings of recent property foreclosures. For $14.95, the property sharks will send you this foreclosure auction information in advance, (though I suspect the info is available for free if you willing to plumb the depths of www.nyc.gov.) This is power, people. Bookmark it. OHR