The technical tweaks are complete, and you now can search for a home by MLS listing area on the MLS website.

And if that seems obvious - well, of course! - a little explanation is in order.

The Charlotte Regional Realtor Association operates Carolina Multiple Listing Services, the official MLS for the Charlotte area market. When the association upgraded its online home search tool this spring, it added lots of helpful features. And it lost one: You could no longer search by MLS geographic area.

The technology company that provided the new search tool, Lender Processing Services, didn't offer that option.

The listings at the website, www.carolina home.com , don't comprise the full, official MLS. That data is available only to pros. But the listings offer up the public face of the MLS.

When I wrote about the issue back in April, the MLS area search had been absent about three weeks - and prospective homebuyers had noticed. MLS technical advisor Steve Byrd said he'd received about 50 email complaints.

I heard from a few readers after that column, too. My favorite email was a simple, "What!!!"

Byrd also said that he had talked to Lender about restoring the MLS area search. Indeed, it's back. Tucked amid all the other property search criteria is a box with the listing areas.

The listing areas, as anyone who has shopped for a home has learned over the years, divide the Charlotte market into smaller, more manageable chunks. Areas 1 through 9 are inside Mecklenburg; each nearby county has its own listing area.

In addition - and this is especially helpful - popular submarkets have their own listing areas: Area 13 is Lake Norman, and it encompasses parts of all the counties that touch the lake. Area 99 is uptown Charlotte.

Realtor association spokeswoman Kim Walker said this week that the bugs had been banished, and the MLS area search was operating smoothly.

I poked about. The sophisticated new search options, combined with the restored MLS area search, are a big improvement over the previous incarnation.

I searched Area 13. The system prompted me to narrow my search criteria a couple of times, and then displayed listings on a map. A click or two led me to all sorts of details.

I could see "comps," or other recent sales nearby, graphs and charts showing median neighborhood value and appreciation, even rental information.

Want to know how many homes in your area are owned, rented and vacant? Check out the upgraded search tool. You might be surprised.

The "Bird's Eye View" is cool, too.