When Ben Jones daydreams, he has visions of Alan Greenspan.
He fantasizes that on nights the Federal Reserve chairman gets restless, he wanders into his den to boot up his computer. But instead of monitoring overnight currency trading, Greenspan links to Jones' interactive Web log, or "blog," to check the pulse of the nation's real estate naysayers -- those who see the housing market enveloped in a persistent bubble.
"Maybe he secretly logs on to see what people are thinking," said Jones, an Arizona-based freelance writer. "I've had more than one person tell me it was addicting."
Jones' blog, thehousingbubble2.blogspot.com, is one of the more popular of a growing number of blogs providing news, data, commentary or reports about the sizzling housing market.
Since January, the number of sites related to real estate, excluding Realtors' marketing sites, has jumped 19%, according to online market research firm Hitwise. Some offer consumer information and advice, while Jones' and others are rampant with pessimistic musings about the nation's housing boom going bust.
"It's the best suspense novel you've ever read," said Debbie Daly, a renter in Agoura who is a nonpracticing real estate agent and frequent contributor to Jones' blog. "How it will end, I don't know, but I'm riveted."
Blogs in general have been gaining momentum for some time and gained a critical mass during last year's presidential election.
The current outbreak of real estate chatter in the blogosphere seemed to follow a pattern identified during the election: A surge in media attention on an issue feeds consumer interest and vice versa, setting off a "buzz storm," said Jonathan Carson, chief executive of Internet market researcher BuzzMetrics.
"It's an extension of the water-cooler phenomenon," Carson said. "But now people are able to find more influential and informed consumers" on the Web.
Rich Toscano is among the bubble bloggers. A computer programmer by training, he says he is obsessed with financial markets. He's also a renter in San Diego, which had been one of the nation's hottest housing markets until its home-price growth started easing this spring.
So it seemed natural for him to put his personal zeal to work on trying to figure out what is going on in his hometown, which he considers to be in a bubble.
