Several years ago, Bankrate Inc. (NASDAQ: RATE) was benefiting nicely from the mortgage boom. But, investors were skeptical -- could this last?

Well, Bankrate was smart to diversity its offerings, such as into credit cards and insurance. And it's working.

In Bankrate's Q3 report, revenues spiked 77% to $44 million (a record for the company). Net income was $6 million or $0.32 per share. Moreover, adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) came to $16 million, a 39% increase over the past year.

With the volatility in the financial markets, Bankrate got a nice boost from users looking for guidance. In fact, Q3 page views increased 11% to 160.1 million. No doubt, Bankrate certainly understands how to monetize such traffic.

Through most of 2006 there was a lot of discussion about the housing slowdown. The debate about whether or not America was going to witness a crash in the housing market has all but been settled. There is no question anymore that the housing pullback has been a tough one, and the ripple effect through the economy has yet to be fully realized.

Late last month we got the numbers for January home sales. What we saw were mixed messages. On Feb 27 we were hit with the positive news that existing home sales rose 3.0% from December to January which was the biggest monthly increase in 2 years. Then the following day we were hit with the worrisome news that during the same month sales of existing homes dropped 16.6%! We hadn't seen a drop of that size since back in January 1994.

So I was wondering at the time if this would be enough to start up a debate again over the housing market and whether or not the pullback had run its course. Since then all we seem to have heard about is the subprime mortgage business and how millions of people are about to lose their homes leading us to believe that the housing woes have yet to run their course.

But like everything, geography is bound to play in role in your thoughts on the housing market. According to a report from bankrate.com there are some areas in the country that will enjoy a very good year in 2007.