The popular state search site for real estate information in Maryland -- who owns that home, how much did they pay for it and how much does the state think it's worth -- has been down since Monday.
You've probably been aware of this since, oh, Monday, if you use it as much as I do, but July is a big month even for occasional users. Tax bills go out in July.
"Since Monday we have had major database problems with the online Real Property system," reads the warning, up as of Thursday morning, on the state Department of Assessments and Taxation site. "Our technicians have been diligently working to restore the database. We hope to have service restored as soon as possible. SDAT understands the impact this outage has had on our users and sincerely apologize. Thank you for your patience."
Each day, agency officials have been hopeful that the database would be back by evening. So far, no luck. I've been getting frustrated emails from a few of the regulars who are usually on the site daily.
Director Robert E. Young said by email earlier this week that the search site went down after a log file filled up and "got truncated from the server." Staffers were recreating the file, but I haven't heard a new estimate today on when the site could be back up.
UPDATE: Young said at 11:30 a.m. that the chief information officer believes the problem is fixed. Some of the file had been restored. They'll need more than three hours to restore the entire file and expect the site to be back up later today, he said.
UPDATE at 6 p.m. Thursday: Still down. Hope springs eternal for the next day.
UPDATE at 11:45 a.m. Friday: It will not be back up today, at least not before the close of business.
The agency's chief information officer and staff at Towson University, which maintains the site, "encountered some additional problems yesterday," Young said by email.
"However, our IT experts are prepared to work on the problems throughout the weekend and into the evenings until the site is restored," he said by email.
UPDATE Monday: Back up. It was on, then off, then on during the course of Sunday, so I figured I'd give it a day to settle before posting.
On an average month, the agency's website gets more than 3 million hits, Young said.
Got a housing news tip or experience to share? (Or just want to tell me something?) Email me at jhopkins@baltsun.com.
