Have A 'Coke’ And Smile, Have A ‘Soda’ And Pop!

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My obsession with the word ’pop’ led me to a stunning discovery this afternoon: It's possible to identify the most inflated housing markets based upon what generic name their residents use to describe soft drinks.

Bear with me as I explain.

I am in love with the word ‘pop.’ It's so versatile that I use it most every day.

It's an intransitive verb — Hearts broke, bank accounts dwindled and bubbles popped.

It's a transitive verb — If you call me a ‘bubblehead’ one more time, I'll pop you!

It's an adverb — The housing bubble went pop.

It's an adjective — Today there will be a pop quiz on housing bubbles.

It's a noun — Let's drink a pop and talk about the bubble."

It's a proper noun — Hey, Pop. Can I borrow $160,000 for a downpayment?

I've long called my favorite soft drink a ‘pop,’ much to the surprise of friends and colleagues who all call it ‘soda.’ And so it was while surfing the Internet in search of other ‘pop’ aficionados that I discovered the map above. I first saw it over at Assemble Me and it immediately blew me away.

I've long been aware that our nation can't agree on what to call them fizzy drinks, but until now I never imagined that one of those names was a common denominator among bubble markets.

Look carefully. Compare it to Sornette's map in which the colors red and magenta indicate bubble markets, and green represents non-bubble markets. Do you see my discovery rising off the soft drink map like a carbonated mist?

It's not perfect, but that's beside the point. What's important is that the soda-drink map clearly shows that most of the over-inflated housing markets in the nation prefer to use the noun ‘soda.’ That's all of California, New York, New England, Hawaii, the eastern half of Illinois (Chicago), Arizona, southern Nevada (Las Vegas) and parts of Florida!

If you call it a ‘pop’ or a ‘coke,’ you can smile. Your house is probably safe from the bursting bubble (unless you're up in Seattle Bubble and Vancouver* territory).

But if you call it ‘soda,’ your bubble looks like it's going to get popped!

Take cover Arizona!

* EDITORS NOTE: Before you flame me in comments, let me state that I'm fully aware that Vancouver is not in the U.S. However, I like Canadians and think we should let them join us if they wish, and so I include them. If you're still upset by this then I suggest you go have a pop and calm down.

-- The Boy in the Big Housing Bubble/Los Angeles and Beyond