Desperate Times Call for… Justin Bieber?

That chill running down my spine must mean that KB Home (NYSE: KBH) just summoned the crazy specter of bubbly days gone by.

Now that the first-time homebuyer tax credit has expired, and folks are feeling a little less flush and a little more nervous, KB Home’s trying to lure folks in the Las Vegas market to come look at homes … by giving them a chance to win tickets to a Justin Bieber concert.

The pint-sized pop potentate may be all the rage with teens and preteens, but geez, they’re not the ones buying houses. (Or so we hope. Talk about your subprime lending…)

I can't help flashing back to the craziness of the housing bubble, when KB rolled out any number of weird gimmicks to keep the buyers rolling in. It teamed up with Martha Stewart for a line of designer houses, and in late 2007, it partnered up with Disney (NYSE: DIS) to give its homes an extra sprinkling of pixie dust.

Then again, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B) subsidiary Clayton Homes may have claimed the all-time prize for weird incentives last winter, when it offered potential mobile home buyers a can of pork and beans with purchase. Still, KB's Bieber strategy seems pretty strange.     

After all the nonsense that polluted the housing bubble, tactics that once seemed at least vaguely rational now just sound desperate. Perhaps there's good reason for homebuilders' panic; housing starts plunged 10% to a five-month low in May. For KB Home and rivals like Lennar (NYSE: LEN) and Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL), that figure's got to be anything but sweet music.

Sound off on Bieber, housing, and bubbly behavior in the comment box below.