Carly Fiorina's keynote address next Thursday at the annual Sacramento Regional Housing Forecast is giving a whole new groove to an affair where homebuilders mope about how awful things are.

Media speculation abounds that at some point next week Fiorina will announce her Republican challenge to Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.

The smart money says she'll announce in Pleasanton the day after she appears in Sacramento, during an event showcasing high-tech startups. But staffers for the ex-Hewlett Packard chief say coyly the true location is a surprise. It could turn out to be Sacramento, ground zero for the housing and economic downturn.

Normally, few reporters would show up to hear from a state labor market consultant, a Folsom homebuilding industry consultant and an economist from California State University, Sacramento. Last year's big keynote speaker was Jeffrey Mezger, CEO of Los Angeles-based KB Home. He talked about building smaller houses to compete with foreclosures.

This year, that keynote is packing much more suspense.

The rock 'n' roll loft life

You know you're cool if you buy a loft at Oak Park's Fourth Avenue Lofts. But it's cooler still to get a drop-in there from DIY Network's "House Crashers."

Ask Fourth Avenue resident Eli Bob, bartender at Carmichael's Luna Lounge. The show did a rock 'n' roll makeover at his loft this week, putting up a rock wall and decorating another with classic rock albums.

"He is a bachelor in a really cool space, and he hasn't done much with it. It was screaming for attention," said Wendy Fontes, the national show's coordinating producer.

Bob was one of the first to move into the 10-unit development at 35th Street and Fourth Avenue almost two years ago. Now, it's nearly sold out, says Rob McQuade, sales agent for the property.

McQuade, of McMartin Realty, signed a contract this week for one of the last two live-work units priced at $292,000. That leaves one in a project that opened in 2007 as the market tanked.

Cobwebs are big business

Those Halloween decorations adorning thousands of Sacramento-area houses and apartment decks are big business. The National Retail Federation estimates Americans will spend $1.23 billion this year on cobwebs, ghosts, skeletons and other decorations for wherever they call home.

The average decorator spent $23.56, says the NRF, and 62 percent of the buying public bought at least something for the yard or porch.

That's down a little from last year in this economy, but it's still a lot of plastic spiders. Home Front's favorite yard sighting this year: hand-made tombstones in Natomas. There lie "Big Al, One Whopper too many," and "Mary Lass, Missed the Brake and Hit the Gas."

Lucky folks with no mortgages

Day in and out we hear about the profound number of capital-area residents struggling with mortgages and the thousands who owe more on their home loan than their houses are worth.

There's another crowd without such worries. They have paid off their loans.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 23.5 percent of homes occupied by their owners in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties are free and clear of mortgages. That's about the state average. No more counting down years, and no sleepless nights.

Nationally, where owning a house is cheaper, 31.6 percent of owner- occupiers have paid off their mortgages, the bureau reports.

The six-county capital area, incidentally, is home now to almost 1 million single-family houses, condos, apartments and townhouses. The newest 2008 American FactFinder puts the region's residential tally at 990,187.

Call The Bee's Jim Wasserman, (916) 321-1102. Read his blog on real estate, Home Front, at www.sacbee.com/blogs.