The latest Census Bureau data shows that the number of vacant homes for sale nationally jumped more than 30 percent during the third quarter from a year earlier, to 1.9 million homes.

The Center of Responsible Lending (CDL), a nonprofit research organization, analyzed more than six million subprime mortgages made from 1998 through the third quarter of 2006 and estimated that 2.2 million households in the subprime market have either lost their homes to foreclosure or hold mortgages that will fail this year.  According to CDL, even during years of strong appreciation, as many as one in eight subprime loans ended in foreclosure.

Public Policy Advocacy Issues for the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® this year will be:

v      Affordable Housing Tax Credit

v      Banks in Real Estate

v      Do-Not-Fax Implementation

v      Government Sponsored Enterprises Conforming Loan Limits

v      Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) Reform

v      Improving the Effectiveness of FHA

v      Leasehold Improvements

v      Mortgage Interest Deduction

v      Natural Disaster/Flood Insurance

v      Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Rulings Expanding Bank Powers

v      Ownership of Industrial Loan Companies (ILCs) by Commercial Firms

v      Property Casualty Insurance

v      Real Estate Settlement Procedures

v      Secondary Market for Commercial Mortgages

v      Small Business Health Plans

v      Tax Reform

This is what happened regionally in December:

• Existing-home sales in the Midwest rose 4.3 percent in December to a level of 1.47 million, but were 5.8 percent lower than December 2005.  The median price in the Midwest was $167,000, which is 2.9 percent below a year ago.
• Existing-home sales in the South increased 0.8 percent to an annual sales rate of 2.49 million in December, but were 7.1 percent below a year ago.  The median price in the South was $182,000, unchanged from December 2005.
• Existing-home sales in the Northeast declined 2.8 percent to a level of 1.04 million in December, and were 5.5 percent below December 2005.  The median existing-home price in the Northeast was $283,000, up 3.7 percent from a year earlier.
• Existing-home sales in the West fell 9.1 percent to an annual pace of 1.20 million in December and were 15.5 percent lower than a year ago.  The median price in the West was $349,000, up 1.5 percent from December 2005.

Some bills to watch in the California Legislature this year is:

v      AB 5 (Wolk) – Flood Protection: local: central valley: plans -- This bill would create a new planning document called a Central Valley Flood Protection Plan.  Local agencies would be required to create local plans of flood protection to gain access to state levee improvement and repair fund.  Ultimately, the bill would also prohibit local governments in the Central Valley from approving new development within high-risk flood prone areas, unless conditions are met to ensure appropriate levels of flood protection.

v      AB 26 (Nakanishi) – Flood control: natural community conservation plan – This bill, which is the re-introduction of AB 1877 from 2006, would authorize the California Department of Fish and Game to enter into agreements with the State Reclamation Board and persons or public agencies for the preparation of natural community conservation plans.  These plans would be developed for species conservation but are designed to specifically exempt flood control or flood management activities identified in the agreements.  The intent of the bill is to ultimately streamline the levee maintenance and repair process.