A very sad day on the passing of CR's Tanta

Very sad news yesterday on the passing of Doris "Tanta" Dungey, one of the two primary voices on the influential and comprehensive Calculated Risk blog.

I actually first started reading Calculated Risk due to Tanta's extremely funny, opinionated and razor-sharp analyses of all things related to mortgages, banking and economics. Unfortunately, I didn't start reading the blog regularly until after Tanta had fallen ill, so I never got to connect with her by email, phone or in person. I'm sure if I had I would've liked her a lot.

I did, however, connect with her partner Bill McBride, who founded the blog back in the dark days of 2005, when discussing a housing bubble was tantamount to treason in most real estate circles (and also a primary reason I wanted to work with Beacon Economics, which also forecast our current times of trouble). After he agreed to list my nascent blog on his blog roll, I introduced myself to him at the most recent Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco. Despite his huge traffic numbers and influence, I found Bill to be quite gracious, friendly and approachable, so if you do see him speak at a conference, don't hesitate to walk up and say hello.

One of the reasons I gave the #1 "Mayflower" prize in today's "Carnival of Real Estate #119" to Rain City Guide's Ardell DellaLoggia (and this was before I'd read of Tanta's death) was because her post reminded me so much of Tanta's style -- something I'd like to see much more of in the blogosphere. Given the size of the financial crisis impacting the world today, I think the time for being polite rather than digging for the truth is hopefully long gone.

May many Tantas heed her example and rise up in her place to shine expert lights on areas which desperately need the cleansing. More than anything, that would mean an important and appropriate memorial.