I love housing bubble talk. Then again, what renter who’s eager to purchase a home doesn’t enjoy hearing news of impending real estate doom and gloom?

Before tonight’s main event, a bit of local micro-bubble-popping in my home of Rockville, Maryland. One of the first homes we visited, this Cape Cod just down the road from a couple of our friends, was originally listed at $389,000 about six weeks ago. Now it’s down to $369,000. At that price, we just might have considered making an offer… of about $349,000… if only it didn’t need $30,000 worth of work almost immediately. But that’s okay because other properties are popping up left and right in the neighborhood at prices that are more in our neighborhood. Nick’s predicted sale price for this property: $339,000.

Now on to something more exciting. With bubble talk finally popping up more often in mainstream media, it looks like more people are considering the possibility of a moderate to severe housing market correction. And people living in the most overpriced markets won’t be able to play dumb in coming months when they see the value of homes around them start to plummet. If you check out the Google search trends for the term “housing bubble,” you’ll see that people in California, Northern Virginia, and the District of Columbia are performing the most queries for news and information on the upcoming housing downturn. Here’s the list of the top ten U.S. cities searching for “housing bubble” as of June 13, 2006:

1. San Jose, CA
2. Arlington, VA
3. Pleasanton, CA
4. Santa Clara, CA
5. Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
6. San Francisco, CA
7. Irvine, CA
8. San Diego, CA
9. Reston, VA
10. Washington, DC

If you’ve been following recent housing bubble discussions, then you’d know that these are some of the areas expected to experience the worst housing price drops. It’s a bit like watching cute little bunnies read over the dental records of wolves. Yes, you little bunnies living in overpriced holes, the housing bubble wolves have sharp teeth, and they’re going to chew you up real good.

Mmm, bunny.