'House Porn': Real Estate Blogs' Hottest Market

Candy Evans, also known as "the woman who brought house porn to the Bible Belt," says her niche blog draws its traffic primarily from two sources: voyeurism and bargain-hunting.

Evans runs the two real estate blogs CandysDirt.com and SecondShelters.com which, like many other real estate blogs, paint vivid portraits of mouth-watering houses and report celebrity-home transactions. Both have built loyal audiences in short periods of time, Evans says, with CandysDirt drawing 55,000 page views a month. She isn't the only self-starter cashing in on Americans' fascination with homes.

Her blogs are among thousands which have sprouted around the country since about 2005 and continue to proliferate despite the recession and maybe because of it.

"I think it's because we're in a recession," said Evans (who also has blogged for AOL Real Estate) of her blog's success. "I think everybody's depressed about what's going on in the world."