What’s the Bay Area housing market going to do next year? That depends on whom you ask. We interviewed four economists who track the market and, no surprise, we got four different answers. The economist with the brightest outlook, Scott Anderson of Wells Fargo & Co., says housing prices will rise next year, maybe by as much as 5 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, consultant Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics says he doesn’t expect any significant appreciation until 2011 at the earliest. Who’s right and who’s wrong? Only time will tell.

THE INDUSTRY REP

Name: Robert Kleinhenz

 As the New Year approaches and homeowners make resolutions to finally begin that dream home or remodeling project, one woman’s story of permit hell is a measure of the abyss that sometimes yawns between vision and reality.

When Shannon Engelbrecht embarked on her dream home three years ago, she embodied the highest values of the boom time. A well-timed sale of stock options in 2001 allowed her to retire early and funnel her money into real estate projects that helped her friends, family and tenants buy their own homes through equity sharing. A previous column that portrayed her as a “fairy godmother of real estate” brought national attention, including interest in making a reality TV show based on her real estate social work.

 Q: Due to illness and unemployment, we have fallen two months behind on our mortgage payments. My husband is now back at work and I’ve taken a part-time job to help with the bills.

After receiving several threatening letters and even a phone call, the mortgage company filed foreclosure about three weeks ago. They say we are three months behind in payments. But we’re really only two months behind. When I phone the lender, I get put on endless hold waiting to speak with a supervisor. We are starting to receive letters from investors who want to buy our house and other lenders who want to refinance our mortgage. But we have a low-interest-rate mortgage, which we want to keep.

 Q:I am the owner of a house in Marin County that is now rented out while I am on assignment in London. We have owned the house for 18 years and have never had a problem with rats getting into the house until this winter.

When the tenants found rats in the kitchen they expected us to deal with the problem. I said that they should set some traps, which they did. Subsequently we agreed to screen off the deck area to prevent further intrusions but are not sure this will be 100 percent effective.

12-31) 04:00 PST Los Angeles — Although real estate agents may have coined the expression “Why rent when you can buy?” a good segment of Hollywood prefers leasing to owning. And the start of every TV filming season — generally September and January — brings a wave of actor-renters.This fall, Scott Wolf, previously in “Party of Five” and “Everwood,” became one of the stars of ABC’s new series “The Nine,” and with that, Wolf, 38, and his wife, Kelley, leased a furnished four-bedroom, 3 1/2-bathroom contemporary, built in 1962. The Hollywood Hills home, with two fireplaces, was leased for a year at $8,000 a month.