Second that

Irvine Renter over at the Irvine Housing Blog had a great post today called "IHB Privacy Policy." We'd like to draw your attention to the top of it because its perspective mirrors that of this site.

In short:
1. We do not use names. As Irvine Renter said, specific people are irrelevant. It's the property and the financing behind it that tells us the real story. We are interested in trends, not people.
2. We post information from the public record. On this site, we use ForeclosureRadar.com for financial and foreclosure information, which in turn comes straight from the public record.
3. The information is accurate. A blog (or news site, for that matter) is only as strong as its commitment to the truth. That being said, everyone makes mistakes. If we do, we will fix it ASAP.

Those three came from IHB. I'd like to add three more items, though they're more under the heading of "full disclosure and philosophy" than "privacy policy":

1. We do not work in real estate, nor do we profit or lose from its fluctuations. We have an education in real estate, but we aren't in the industry and don't make any money whether it appreciates or crashes.
2. We're local. We grew up in South Orange County. We live in South Orange County. We like it here. No place is perfect, but this is just fine for us. Bubble behavior was shocking, but at the end of the day we still think this is a great place to live - though things certainly have changed in the past number of years. As home prices become more affordable, we feel this will increase the desirability of the area.
3. We want to inform...and entertain. Knowledge and information are power, particularly in the 21st century. The Internet is a great thing. We enjoy contributing our (very) small piece to the collective local real estate knowledge. Consumers deserve a chance to be educated and informed when making what for many is the largest purchase of their lives.