Do you think it will be a housing boom or bust? Will it get better, worse or stay the same? What’s ahead? What’s behind us?

Let me know and we’ll publicize it on the blog so there’s a record of your insightful commentary.

I’m interested in hearing what you all have to say! If you want to be featured in a future story, e-mail me your name and phone number.

The cheapest house in Contra Costa County is . . .  this house in Antioch  on 417 W. 8th St. for $125,900. This two-bedroom, one-bath house is 594 square feet on a 5,000-square-foot lot. Although it sold in March 2006 for $375,000, it’s now on sale for a third of its original price. Deal or no deal? You be the judge.

I was doing the math and 20 percent down on this house would mean your monthly rent mortgage would be $653.  Say what you will, but with childcare in Contra Costa County and $4 a gallon for gas, it makes cheap houses like these seem way more attractive. Warts and all.

I’m not advocating arson. I’m simply writing about what Julio Iglesias is doing to his 10,000-square-foot Miami home he tried to sell for $25 million. Unhappy he couldn’t get his asking price for the four-acre parcel, he’s razing the building and starting anew.

Escalating land prices have led to a boom in multimillion-dollar teardowns. “At these prices the value is all in the land,” says East Hampton, N.Y., broker Diane Saatchi, of Corcoran Group, who says she sold a $28 million teardown property in the Hamptons.

 Think teardowns only in tony places like the Hamptons and California? Think again. And again.

“Teardowns are doing a little better than overall markets, because most teardowns are located in highly desirable neighborhoods that command a premium price and are somewhat easier to sell,” said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors in Washington.

According to the National Trust estimates, New Jersey leads the pack in the New York metropolitan area, with 75 municipalities recording a significant number of teardowns. Adrian Fine, director of the trust’s Northeast field office, in Philadelphia, said that the trust relies largely on local news reports for its figures.

The difference seems to be these are not homes on spec, these are people’s primary homes. And I guess if you have the money, why not create exactly what you want? Let’s just hope it’s not hideous.

I wrote a story about those selling their home during “the holidays” and the effort to make it seem a bit more festive by baking cookies, decorating and making a good impression.

Personally, I sold my house last year in January after listing it in mid-November. It closed in February, but it was first seen in December by the person who made an offer.

Did I decorate it? Yes, but I also had moved the majority of my furniture and clutter out of the house. The only decorations were a couple poinsettias, candles wrapped in artistic berries, and a set table. I took out everything but a bookcase, couch and chair, dining table and one bed. It worked for me.

Can it work for everyone? Possibly. I also listed it $10,000 less than anyone  in my neighborhood, although I still ended up forgiving another $10,000 off the price (hey, man, I wanted that thing sold and out of my hair!) In the end, I still had a tidy profit, less stress and no debt.

For many people, buying and selling during the holidays is a necessity.

Blanche Evans, author of  “Bubble, Booms, and Busts: Make Money in Any Real Estate Market,” and editor and anchorwoman of online video news service RealtyTimes, said that although some people don’t want to sell during the holidays because of family obligations, more don’t because they think there won’t be any buyers.

“You definitely have a smaller pool of buyers, but they tend to be serious,” she said.  “One thing to keep in mind … companies tend to transfer people at the first of the year. If they’re looking during the holidays, they have to make a decision quickly.”

The Fitzgeralds in the story are also looking to sell, but the market has changed a bit from last year. It’s a little harder to sell, but I still wish them luck.

Good luck to all of you selling during this time. Happy holidays one and all.

If you saw my story today, then you know that it doesn’t look great for the East Bay.

But it doesn’t look great for anywhere really, including the more Bay-Area-than-thou San Francisco or Peninsula, despite what those residents say.

I talked to Christopher Thornberg, economist and principal of Beacon Economics, and he said it won’t make a difference.

Thornberg was skeptical that some regions were faring better than others, saying that the greater Bay Area is intertwined.

“While maybe (San Francisco or San Mateo counties) like to think they’re separate from the other areas, their economies are linked,” he said. “There’s no way this eventually won’t have an impact on that area.”

Is it a case of misery loves company? Perhaps. As I talked to him about it, he said that those buying houses in San Mateo aren’t that different from those buying in Walnut Creek or Lamorinda. In fact, they’re the same people.

“Every day someone’s making a choice — a small house in San Mateo they can barely afford or a larger house in Contra Costa with a longer commute,” he said.

Be sure to congratulate Mr. Thornberg, he was also placed on the state controller’s
Council of Economic Advisers:

Can 4,000 mortgage brokers be wrong? According to the California Association of Mortgage Brokers, approximately 47 percent of its membership said that a recession from the housing crisis was imminent. Another 59 percent said home loans and credit will be much more difficult to get in 2008, while 31 percent said that April through June of 2008 will be the best time to buy. CAMB is made up of more than 4,000 industry professionals.

 I’d say if almost half are figuring recession, wouldn’t that mean it’s not a good time to buy a house in any of 2008? Just asking.

The Los Angeles Times had a story about a family, the Ghitkammanees in Palmdale, dealing with their neighborhood affected by foreclosures.

There were 678 foreclosures in Palmdale and Lancaster in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with 79 during the same period in 2006, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Ghitkammanee wonders how the value of his home will hold up. One of identical size nearby is listed for $325,000 — $60,000 less than he paid for his. An even larger foreclosed house in the neighborhood is being offered for $282,000.

He fears the worst is yet to come. “Foreclosures keep popping up,” he said. “This is far from over.”

So what is there for homeowners to do when their neighbor’s home has a big “Auction!” sign and weeds are everywhere? Do you contact the city, the bank, the HOA? How are any of your managing?

This is a question for readers because I’m curious. Do you want to read more about foreclosures or is there something else you would like to read about? (This is not a question for people in the real estate industry — I get a couple calls a week that already answer that.)

I’m not talking about how to get deals on foreclosures because most of the foreclosures have a pretty high price tag. (But if you’re interested, go check out www.foreclosureradar.com or other service.)

Explaining how mortgages work and how this will affect you eventually is an important part of the reporting, but there are other issues to tackle in real estate, too. So let me know!

Who says no one is doing anything about the foreclosure crisis? Apparently our Attorney General Jerry Brown is hard at work, according to the Los Angeles Times.

 The nation’s No. 1 mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial Corp., is under investigation by California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and the attorney general’s office in Illinois, the Calabasas company said Thursday.

Countrywide said it had received subpoenas for documents from California and Illinois but declined to elaborate, citing company policy. It said it was cooperating in the two probes.

A spokesman for Brown said he couldn’t comment. The attorney general has said he was taking a broad look into the lending practices of mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers and what roles they might have played in the mortgage meltdown crisis.

The story goes on to say Countrywide was No.1 in the option-ARM, or a negative amortizing loan if you don’t pay more than the minimum payment. That means the loans that haven’t been discussed in Bush’s plan but leave many owing more than they originally paid in a declining market. Although Brown didn’t discuss the investigation with reporters, Brown has said in the past he was more interested in pursuing certain kinds of loans.

In Sacramento, Brown has said he was particularly interested in loans with yield spread premiums. In these mortgages, people who could qualify for a lower interest rate are lent money at a higher rate, with a rebate — the yield spread premium — being paid by the lender as a commission to brokers.

Many in the mortgage industry say the rebate can be used to offset borrowers’ closing costs, making the loan more attractive to borrowers trying to hold down costs. Critics say the yield spread premium more often is simply pocketed by the brokers to make more money on loans.

OK, how many of you believe that the rebate was to offset borrower’s closing costs? Yeah, I’m not buying that either.

So who can afford to buy a home in the Bay Area? If you’re like me, you often wonder if it’s really all hedge fund managers or professional sportsters (yes, I’m making that a word.) According to the California Builders Industry Association, California’s affordability is pretty minimal. In its quarterly National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index report, the CBIA reported only 12.6 percent of homes in the state are affordable for a median-income family, or an annual household income of $65,000.

Napa ranked as the least affordable place in a survey of 65 metropolitan areas with only 3.3 percent of homes attainable to those making a median income of $75,800. San Francisco ranked sixth, up two spots from last quarter’s No. 8, with its $770,000 median home price affordable for only 7 percent of its $86,500 income. The East Bay metro area ranked 21st, meaning only 10.9 percent of homes could be bought by those with median incomes of $83,000 a year.

The East Bay was just behind Oxnard and before Stockton. The median home price was $523,000.

The most affordable in California was Chico, where 27.2 percent of homes are affordable to the area’s $52,000 median income. The median home price? $254,000.

The odd thing about all this is that I know people in households making more than $100,000 a year and they can’t afford a house. So who’s buying? Especially now when credit is becoming so hard to get? Anyone?