The LA Times' business section today had an article about housing market blogs. It seems that several such blogs were ahead of the curve in noting the dangers of sub-prime lending and in predicting the bursting of the housing bubble.
The article mentioned a number of such blogs, including HousingBubbleCasualty.com. The Times noted that much of the coverage of the housing market had been driven by a kind of boosterism from the real estate industry and that contrarian information was not always reported:
[HousingBubbleCasualty.com publisher Brook] Hollan and other commentators are another example of how bloggers are providing alternative sources of information and analysis across a wide spectrum of topics, said Stuart Gabriel, professor of finance and business economics at USC.
The article seemed to underscore the need for such contrary views and the fact that there is market for the information, as we've argued here before. Boosterism, whether in the housing market or in local politics, leads to a kind of intellectual inbreeding.
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