WHEN M. MARIE MAXWELL, 37, decided in 2000 that she wanted to buy a house in the District, the archives specialist at the National Archives did the most thorough type of research possible: She moved into her future neighborhood to check it out in person.

"I wanted to try to find something affordable," Maxwell says, "and I figured I could probably find something if I was very familiar with what block it was on."

After a year of renting in Shaw, Maxwell purchased a 1,000-square-foot house there and has been pleased with her decision ever since. But if the Internet had held eight years ago what it does now — you know, everything from "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" clips to the lowdown on condos under construction — Maxwell might have had an easier time peering into her real estate future.

Now, her blog, In Shaw (An Historically Gentrified Blog), helps other could-be neighbors get to know her area. Like most other Web scribes, Maxwell writes about what matters to her. Sometimes that includes the history of her house or the peas she's growing in her garden. But more often than not, she offers musings on community news and local lore, which amounts to holding a virtual looking glass up to the Shaw scene.

It's a beautiful day in the bloggerhood when potential D.C. homeowners or renters can scour the Internet to find answers to almost any question they might have about
their future digs. Neighborhood blogs may be geared toward folks who already live in a given 'hood, but that doesn't mean you can't use them to find out about where to move in and around the Beltway.

Want to learn the best streets to live on in Petworth if you don't own a car? Get the Prince of Petworth's two cents (as well as the suggestions and comments his readers leave). Wondering whether the redevelopment near the new Nats stadium will make the area a better, safer place to live? Browse through one local's project to document the area's transformation over the past five years on Ballpark and Beyond.

So, how many District-devoted bloggers are out there? Pat Thibodeau, the founder of DCBlogs.com, a blog about, well, other D.C. blogs, estimates that there are less than 100 active blogs that focus specifically on local neighborhoods or issues, but he thinks there are a couple thousand of them that are written by people who live and work in and around Washington. Even area bloggers who chronicle their crash diets or whine about their love lives will occasionally tackle issues that would interest a broader range of Washingtonians.

Neighborhood bloggers are a special breed, though. They're the ones who like to get to the bottom of burning (basic) questions, like, "Why is that building being torn down?" or "Who's moving in?"

The four 20-something to 30-something writers behind the blog Penn Quarter Living, for instance, often try to be the first ones with the scoop on the newest buildings on the block.

"Everybody likes to know what's going to open before you even see a sign on the storefront," says one of the main writers, a Penn Quarter resident in his late 20s who asked to be identified only by his online moniker, GPLiving. "When I'm walking down the street, I feel like it's my duty to be nosy and know what's going on."

Penn Quarter Living has kept on top of the downtown explosion of new retail and living spaces ever since the blog began in early 2006. But the folks behind GPLiving think the site has evolved from reflecting a communal "euphoria" among residents who were smitten with the area's amenities to showcasing locals' increasing involvement in their own quality-of-life issues.

"People are starting to get a hold of the neighborhood," says GPLiving, "making fine-tune adjustments. They're saying, 'This could be better and this could be better.'" Penn Quarter Living is becoming a place for people to brainstorm neighborhood improvements, he says.

Still, the blog has a "welcoming" tone, GPLiving says, and it's obviously not lost on its readers; Penn Quarter Living receives 1,000 to 2,000 unique hits each day — some of them from out-of-towners. "We get e-mails from people saying, 'I'm moving [to Washington] from Texas. What's the best place to live in Penn Quarter?'" GPLiving says. "We play neighborhood ambassador sometimes."

The bloggers at DCMetrocentric receive plenty of e-mails from advice-hungry newcomers as well. Run by four young professionals in their 20s and 30s, DCMetrocentric focuses on development in neighborhoods throughout the Beltway. They post so many architectural renderings and descriptions of new construction plans that people often ask them whether they work for a real estate company. If you're wondering, too, the answer is no.

"We have no affiliations with anyone," says the blog's managing editor, James Hickman, 26. But, he notes, development companies often send their press releases and renderings to DCMetrocentric, so the blog gets updated all the time with stuff that comes straight from the right sources. Oh, and a few of the bloggers work in the architecture industry, too.

"I don't know of anyone else that has the kind of coverage of the whole [metropolitan Washington] area" that DCMetrocentric does, Hickman says. "You could come to DCMetrocentric to find out what's going on in all neighborhoods, instead of just one."

A popular DCMetrocentric feature is a "PriceChecker" contest: The bloggers post a photo and description of a local home for sale. Readers chime in on what they think real estate agents want for the place. A few days later, the bloggers reveal the actual asking price. The whole concept is like the "Price Is Right" as executed by HGTV. Unfortunately, the reader with the best guess doesn't win the home.

Hickman wouldn't share any stats on how many people read the blog but says DCMetrocentric is almost always among the 10 most popular sites listed by the Web site D.C. DailyVoices, which ranks the most-read area blogs daily.

Though development is a hot topic at DCMetrocentric and Penn Quarter Living, some blogs in the hood turn their attention to other, often niche topics. A Parent in Silver Spring, written by stay-at-home mom Jessica McFadden, 32, is all about family-friendly activities and news related to the Maryland 'burbs surrounding Silver Spring.

McFadden's postings seem hip to the pulse of the "Sesame Street" set (and the big people who care for them). Topics she tackles — from toy boutiques to parent resource centers — are "all specific to parents who live in my area." Every day, she updates a calendar of local tot (and Mom or Dad) -oriented events that she attaches to the blog. Local families clearly like this massive undertaking: A Parent in Silver Spring gets about 1,000 hits per day.

Though the In Shaw blog doesn't receive as much traffic as some other neighborhood blogs (maybe 230 visitors per day), Maxwell doesn't mind. She says she appreciates that the blog helps her point out "little, itty-bitty things" about her neck of the woods that others might not notice, like the opening of a new bodega selling organic products. "I feel great when I've highlighted something in the neighborhood and [readers] have checked it out," Maxwell says.

For GPLiving, one of the Penn Quarter Living bloggers, his neighborhood blog is a new kind of public service — a sort of gossip chain without the devastating social ladder or the rumor-spreading teens.

"Before the Internet, you had kind of a grapevine neighbor network, where you'd walk across the street and talk to so-and-so, who knows this person who heard that this is going to open up," he says. "I view the blog as that grapevine — only now it's publicly accessible, so you don't have to know the right person to get all the information."

» IDEA LIST: PICK OF THE CLICKS

Hungry for info on your 'hood — or the one across the river? Here are a few other local blogs worth a hit.

»14TH & YOU: 14thandyou.blogspot.com
This blog focuses on the 14th Street corridor, U Street, Logan Circle and East Dupont communities. Find discussions about topics from neighborhood meetings to whether the new Target has caused a crime wave in Columbia Heights. These bloggers don't always paint a rosy picture of these zones, but they certainly provide candid takes on them.

» AND NOW, ANACOSTIA: Anacostianow.blogspot.com
Get your fill of Southeast D.C. news and even satisfy your inner voyeur at this site. The blogger sometimes plays neighborhood sleuth who, armed with a digital camera, posts shots of buildings before and after they receive paint jobs or new facades, plus photos of the zone's many people, places and new development projects.

» FROZEN TROPICS: Frozentropics.blogspot.com
A resident of Trinidad (in Northeast D.C.) keeps readers apprised of the best (restaurants, theater, bars) and worst (crime reports) news about the hopping area north of Capitol Hill, including the H Street neighborhood.

» ODE STREET TRIBUNE: Ode-street-tribune.blogspot.com
NoVa residents or newcomers can check out this blogger's chronicle of news and events from the Radnor/ Fort Meyer Heights area of Arlington. One highlight: well-produced digital videos of local events, including footage from the community Mardi Gras parade and interviews with residents at local polling stations during February's primary.

» ON THE RED LINE: Jcnemecek.com/grosvenor
A public transportation-minded scribe highlights news and stuff to do around — you guessed it — Red Line Metro stations. Read about everything from shopping malls popping up in the Maryland 'burbs to the latest animals to move into the National Zoo (aka, Woodley Park's newest residents).

Photos by Lawrence Luk and James A. Parcell/The Washington Post

Posted by Katie Aberbach at 2:23 PM on April 25, 2008
Tagged in Condo Living , Free Ride , Maryland , Metro , Real Estate , The District , Top Stories , Virginia