real estate crazed americans have started behaving in ways that eerily recall the stock market obsession of the late 1990ssome houses have been bought twice in a single day an early21stcentury version of day trading buying stocks on margin has morphed into buying homes with no money down the overthetop parties of internet startups have been replaced by flashy gatherings where developers pitch condos to eager buyersfive years ago cnbc sometimes seemed like a backdrop to daily american life its cheery analysis of the stock market played in offices in barbershops even in some bars today its homeimprovement shows are the addictive fare that cnbcs exuberant stock shows once wereit just seems like everyone is doing it said laurie romano a 26yearold real estate investor she and her fiance had already put down a deposit on a manhattan condo earlier and are now looking at another onenobody can know whether the housing boom will end as the dotcom frenzy did but the parallels are raising alarms among many economists even those who acknowledge that there are differences between homes and stocks that significantly reduce chances of another meltdown for one thing houses are not just paper wealth you can live in them still perhaps the most troubling similarity is the claim that the rules have somehow changed in an echo of the blasi attitude that new economy investors took toward unprofitable companies the growing ranks of real estate investors are buying houses they never expect to be able to rent at a profit instead they think the prices of houses will just keep risingpremonitions of a bubble on the verge of popping do not ruffle those who are bullish on real estate ron shuffield of esslingerwootenmaxwell realtors predicted that a limited supply of land coupled with demand from baby boomers and foreigners would prolong the boom indefinitelythe cantmiss aura of real estate has also helped nudge many families to invest more of their personal wealth in real estate by buying more expensive homes and taking on riskier mortgagesthere are certainly serious reasons to believe that house prices will not suffer the fate of technology stocks not only are houses more tangible but people do not sell homes as quickly as stocks making a panic much less likely because of tax advantages few owners are likely to sell and rent something else simply because local house prices start to decline nyt news service