Here's how Miller, who doesn't think the housing market is going to crash, became a beacon of trust. The call was from a journalist at an international paper asking for Miller's comment on the US housing market for a story. The 62-year-old founder of the real-estate-appraisal and data firm Miller Samuel is probably the most-quoted man in real estate, with some 2,469 news citations, according to the database LexisNexis. Today, Miller Samuel has replaced Scantrons with iPods, iPhones, and a CoreLogic appraisal software called A La Mode. Today, there's much more data than there was when he started Miller Samuel, but also a lot more "crap," Miller said.

---