A system and method receives a user profile and searches a data structure for suitable real estate zones that satisfy preferences within the user profile. Based on the user preferences, the geographic areas that best satisfy the user' s preferences are reported to the user, along with ancillary information, such as socio-economic reports, market research data, and so on. Sets of different user preferences are customized for determining the best geographic areas for residential, commercial, and industrial use, and include such options as traffic patterns, neighbouring businesses, population density, and so on. The user is also provided the option of indicating the relative importance, or weighting factor, associated with each user' s preference.