South OC approved: The Great Housing Bubble book

Our friend Irvine Renter over at the Irvine Housing Blog has finished his book: "The Great Housing Bubble: Why Did House Prices Fall?" It's available now from Amazon. He's also scheduled a book signing Nov. 12 at JT Schmid's at The District in Tustin if you'd like to meet the Internet celeb-turned author in the flesh.

We were lucky enough to read a manuscript. It's a very good book, written by someone with inside, intimate knowledge of how the industry works. Not the kind of work you're going to get from an academic in an ivory tower. That's a good thing.

The Great Loan Blog wrote: "It is destined to be the standard by which other books on the subject will be measured. It is the first book written after prices peaked, and it is the first in the genre to detail the psychological factors that are arguably more important for understanding the housing bubble."

We agree with this sentiment. We also see a haunting element to this book, because it forces us to take a long look at ourselves as a culture and a nation obsessed with real estate riches and "easy" money - even as we are still picking through the financial and psychological rubble for signs of a recovery.

Happy election day - go out and vote! Or, if you're like us and a true Californian you already mailed in your absentee ballot more than a week ago.