Name: Patrick Killelea

Occupation: Engineer/programmer

Blog site: http://patrick.net/wp/

Audience: About 5,000 readers per day

Q: What makes you a real estate bubble believer, a bubble debunker, or bubble neutral?

A: Owners and real estate businesses have a large vested interest in downplaying the bubble, no matter how real. Most renters are neutral, since they would probably rent anyway and don’t really win or lose regardless of what happens to owners. But there is a small contingent of renters-by-choice who are adamant bubble believers and have made a big bet on it by renting. I’m one of them.

TUMWATER - Truss Components of WA Inc. makes trusses - wood frames t hat give the roof on a house its slope and structure.

The company, which has operated a Tumwater manufacturing plant since 1992, has benefited from South Sound’s growing real estate market.

Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Truss Components produced trusses for an average of 115 homes a month, said General Manager Chad Johnson.

To boost the post 9/11 economy, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates, and real estate became the next hot investment.

 Any “best of” list is preposterous and provocative at once. It presents dopey claims as absolute truths, but it can illuminate a topic in unexpected ways.

And that’s why I welcome last week’s release of what is purported to be “America’s Favorite Architecture” — a list of 150 structures compiled through an online survey of 1,804 adults commissioned by the American Institute of Architects.

It’s bogus and baffling, and what the heck is the Bellagio Hotel of Las Vegas doing at No. 22? But the list is a reminder to critics like me that in the relationship between real people and real buildings, looks count for more than innovation.

Name: John McLeod

Work experience: Information technology

Blog site: Co-blogger at HousingDoom.com, “Housing Doom Housing Bubble Blog: The housing bubble has burst — what happens next?”

Audience: About 2,000 visitors per day.

Q: What makes you a real estate bubble believer, a bubble debunker, or bubble neutral?

A: Bubble believers are heavily weighted to short-sellers, renters, etc., while bubble denial is common in Realtors, builders and research institutes studying the market and being paid by these.

The spectacular profitability of many financial institutions in the period 2001-05 is what makes me a bubble believer.