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California voters decided to turn down Proposition 23 last month, which means that AB32 goes into effect on January 1. Among the far-reaching consequences of this piece of legislation is the requirement that California’s housing stock become significantly higher performing in terms of energy efficiency. The problem? The new homes built in California ARE energy-efficient, and offer all of the energy and healthy home features that are envisioned by this bill. In fact, most of the housing stock built since Title 24 was passed in 1978 are in pretty good shape, energy-wise.

But what about the millions of California homes built before 1978? Who is going to pay for the insulation, the double pane windows, the upgrades in construction materials to make these homes comply with this new legislation? According to one Bay Area City Manager, there is NOTHING in this bill that indicates how the process is going to be funded, and neither the homeowner or the city in which he lives has the money to put into existing housing stock upgrades—especially when so many homes are worth less today than when this legislation was originally written.

Bob Glover, the Executive Director of the Building Industry Association of the Bay Area (BIA), talks today to The Real Story about how the State Energy Commission is looking at how to encourage Californians to remodel to new green standards.

In our recent coverage of West Coast Green, The Real Story heard about the all-electric Nissan Leaf, slated to hit the market in early 2011. Because transportation is so critical to where people choose to live, we are always on the lookout for how applicable new ideas in transportation are to how we live here in the Bay Area. So when Nissan offered test drives of the zero-emission LEAF at the San Francisco Auto Show, we signed up. Here are our impressions:

This is one sweet ride—silent and smooth. The test drive was indoors, so we really didn’t have an opportunity to test the acceleration or road handling, but it glided around the test track effortlessly. It seemed responsive at 10 miles per hour. How it will do on I-880 remains to be seen.

This is one small car. It’s plenty big enough to hold tall people, but it definitely feels compact.

This car is tech savvy. A trip computer and Bluetooth are standard. An app, downloadable to your computer and mobile phone, helps to monitor the charge in your battery, program charging to off-peak hours, and locate charging stations when you’re out and about. It will also allow your car to be pre-heated or cooled when you hop in to leave for work in the mornings.

You’ll need a charging station. The home charging station is not included in the price of the vehicle. It runs $2,200, but there are currently tax credits for $1,100.

It’s designed to overcome bad behavior. Nissan anticipated the kind of driver that ignores warnings that fuel levels are low. The range is 100 miles. If the charge gets low, there’s a series of actions the car will take to get you to pay attention. When your charge begins to get low, it will send you a message and show you a map with the locations of nearby charging stations. If you ignore that, it will begin to take functions away to conserve energy—like the air conditioning and the audio system.

A charge is not that hard to find—and will get easier. The State, major retailers and some energy companies are investing heavily in this technology. The approach is to put charging stations where you are likely to leave your car while you do other things. So you can pick up some charge while you’re at work or attend a meeting. There will soon be fast chargers (440V) all along the I-5 corridor that will recharge the battery in about 30 minutes.

All in all, the LEAF seems to be a great concept for the Bay Area. Until the rest of the country catches up to California in terms of infrastructure, it may not be your best ride to Vegas.

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As of January 1, the nation’s first mandatory statewide green building standards take effect with CAL Green. The Real Story had the opportunity to talk with Bob Glover, Executive Director of the Building Industry Association (BIA) of the Bay Area, to get the details.

Bob tells us that the new CAL Green Code puts California in the spotlight as the first state to adopt construction standards for residential, commercial and public building construction. Its goal, according to Bob, is to provide major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and water use.

The mandate comes from the state; the local jurisdictions will enforce it, and the BIA of the Bay Area has been working with the California Building Industry Association (CBIA) to get its membership trained and ready to take this on and make it happen. And, predictably, the rest of the country is watching to see how this new standard moves from legislation into reality.

The Real Story is on break this week. We’ll be back on Monday with some insights on the new CAL Green program, so be sure to log on.

Best wishes for a safe and festive holiday.

The Senate Banking Committee has been meeting this week regarding the general investigation by 50 state attorneys general about “robo-signing” foreclosure practices. If a settlement is reached, several new measures could be introduced, including the elimination of the dual-track system of talking modification while pursuing foreclosure. Being discussed is a plan that would require mortgage banks to go through all of the available modification options BEFORE beginning any foreclosure proceedings. This would halt the occurrences of homeowners receiving foreclosure notices while in the middle of working on a modification.

Other ideas on the table include the creation of a fund to compensate buyers who can prove that they were wronged in the foreclosure process. The fund would be administered by the states’ attorneys general; monies for the fund would come from the mortgage banks/servicers.

As the results from the 2010 US Census are released in the months—and years—to come, homebuilders will get their first view in a decade of the composition of the American household. What groups are growing? Are any groups shrinking? Any new household types on the horizon? Are those Millennial kids ever going to move into a house on their own?

In a blog published recently on AdAge.com, founder of American Demographics magazine Peter Francese makes the argument that there is significant pent-up demand for housing that dates back to the beginning of the recession. He cites a March survey from the Census Bureau that shows a household formation increase of only 0.3 percent from 2009—about one third of the annual increase reported in the years before the start of this turbulent economic cycle.

He says, “As of March, 12 million American families are living with 21 million of their adult children, a record high. One fourth of those ‘kids’ are age 25 and older. As the economy improves, most of these adult children will probably…leave the nest and jump start the housing market’s recovery.”