I agree in protecting people’s privacy. I do snoop on realtytrac and the assessor database to gauge the market. When I post this stuff, I don’t use the indivdual’s names. I’ve written about Poway homes bought in the 1980’s, where they refied out the equity and are now in foreclosure, and that one neighbor is late on taxes. It was not necessary to give the names of those families to make the points I was making. Once, I posted the address and name, so people could see if someone they actually knew was in foreclosure, and I was told this was a bad idea, and I can see that now.
So we have to learn how we can make a point about the market turning without humiliating. Remember the book The Scarlet Letter? In Hawthorne’s book, adulteresses had to wear a sewn-on scarlet large letter (Capital A?) on their clothes, so everybody would know they committed adultery. Nobody should have to wear a scarlet letter.
