I realize that there remains a bifurcation of opinion on the ultimate usefulness of blogs. Bloggers see themselves as free from the shackles of potential gatekeeping, allowing them to remain more timely, relevant, and nimble than, say, print - while anti-bloggers still see blogs as upstart mavericks who are crashing the party with wild abandon and a lack of journalistic standards.
The reality of blogging as a source of timely, useful information has been solidified, in my mind, by the housing bubble blogs in particular. For years, these bloggers have been warning of a growing bubble in the real estate markets both regionally and nationally. The criticism for these opinions was unrelenting and harsh at first (generally from the industries whose reputations were taking a solid whacking) but reality is reality. As the numbers have rolled in, the mood of the nation has turned inexorably to agree with the bloggers. These housing blogs have been well ahead of the information curve for years, and as the reality of the housing, credit, liquidity, and confidence crises began to set in, it became clear that, far from being chicken littles, these bloggers really did have their fingers on the ever-weakening pulse of the housing market (and by implication, the wider markets and overall economy.)
I first got turned on to this subset of blogs around a year ago by Seth Jayson of The Motley Fool fame. Seth is one of the more forthcoming of the writers over there, and isn’t known to pull punches - always a plus in my book. He expressed admiration for one blog in particular - http://housingpanic.blogspot.com - which really lived up to Seth’s general praise. I found the blog to be fairly over the top in delivery, but hugely entertaining… and all the while the predictions set forth on the blog were coming to pass, like clockwork. The blogger, known only as “Keith” (represented hilariously in avatar by the infamous Pets.com sock puppet) started the blog in late 2005 and has remained diligent about posting frequently, keeping his topical focus, remaining timely, and sticking to his thesis - staying over the top and entertaining at the same time. To my mind, this blog is “The Beatles” of blogs - irreverent, entertaining, fun and also capable of being taken very seriously - recently, serious journalists like Diana Olick have done interviews with Keith because of his tenacity and style, as well as his accuracy.
Keith got it right when so many of the top names got it wrong (and some still do so!) It’s a bittersweet victory when being correct also means financial disaster for the country looms - but this underscores the kind of awareness that a dedicated blogger can bring forth.
HousingPANIC! (or “HP” as it is also known) is not a member of the Blogburst network, but one of it’s excellent peers (Housing Wire) certainly is, and there you’ll find a somewhat more measured and analytical approach to the same topics that Keith covers - and as you would expect in the blogosphere, there is a certain synergistic effect shared among the housing blogs that gives them strength as a topic sector. So there’s a little bit of HP in Housing Wire, and vice versa.
Housing blogs of this type, to me, are the clearest evidence that sunshine is the best antiseptic, and that the tenacious, nimble outsider status of bloggers can bring relevant information to light in a way that other media simply aren’t able to do. I personally am very grateful for this, and am glad to be a part of Blogburst where I can help bring voices like these to the forefront of mainstream media.
- J. Dock Myrick II
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