Active Rainer Scott Gormley's map (Members Only*) of the US and his question about real estate bubbles reminded me of the mystery re: the disappearance of CA bubble blogger Cole Kenny. Kenny stopped blogging at the end of June 2006. A month earlier Kenny's second to last post appeared on his 'Boy in the Big Real Estate Bubble' blog. I keep wondering was Kenny busy looking at houses in June 2006? Is Cole Kenny now a contented home owner rather than a bubble blogger?
A couple of months before his disappearance Cole Kenny wrote about an important correlation between housing and whether the locals call soft drinks pop or soda. 
What do people call soft drinks in your market? Pop or soda?
On his April 6 2006 post "Have A 'Coke' And Smile, Have A ‘Soda' And Pop!" Cole Kenny had maps, and more maps.... including Generic Names for Soft Drinks by county. Click on a state and find out by county if IT is called "pop" or "soda."
I liked Cole Kenny's blog better than most Bubble Blogs... If I am not mistaken Kenny is a journalist. Not that being a journalist keeps the media from calling everything a bubble. The Columbus Dispactch did a series of articles on housing woes in Central Ohio in the fall of 2005. It was picked up by MSN's Contrarian Chronicles which said:
"You can see how the housing bubble is bursting in places like Columbus, Ohio, where builders and lenders threw common sense away and enticed people to buy homes they couldn't afford."
... but Central Ohio never had the run up in prices that other parts of the country saw. I don't believe, the in-depth, fall 2005 Columbus Dispatch series of articles ever called the problems in the Columbus market a "bubble." ... by definition you can't tell there was a bubble until after it pops.
I've searched Kenny's blog for clues. Did Cole Kenny feel like the S. California bubble popped in the fall of 2005 and is he happily sitting in his own home now sipping a soda?
The Top 10 Riskiest Housing Markets - Fall 2006 (also The Top 10 safest list...ho hum... Columbus Ohio made the safest list, buy now.) The correlated maps pop vs. soda and bubble markets on Cole Kenny's blog bear this out...Columbus is safe... 483 of 622 Franklin County respondents call it pop.
What American Accent do you have? ... touched on the "pop vs. soda" controversy.
* "The Active Rain United States Comment Challenge! (Members Only)" if you are a real estate agent, lender or other real estate industry member join Active Rain to read Scott's Members Only post and see what agents across the US think about local housing bubbles
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