ProQuest

I've used ProQuest extensively over the past several years. It's always one of the first databases I search when I need information (excluding encyclopedic information). That said - the topic I looked up was "first time home buyer". Even with such a generic search phrase, I found appropriate articles, but after I filtered for location (United States), the results were better.

I especially like the option to browse publications when doing reference work. It has been helpful to bring up a specific issue and then sort by page number. It worked well again when I searched for American Libraries.