A SPECIAL REPORT: ORANGE COUNTY HOUSING

HOUSE OF CHANCE: If Santa Claus didn’t bring you a new home, you can always try the California Lottery’s new “Dream Home Scratchers game.” Qualifiers become contestants on the “Dream Home” segment of the Big Spin show and can win a new house. . . . Game sponsor is the Presley Co., a Newport Beach home builder that sells the prize homes to the lottery. . . . Says Presley sales director Kirk Chittick: “We get a chance to sell a few more homes, they win a home. We increase our name recognition. Its a win-win deal.”

PRICEY: Most expensive home sold here this year: An 11-room residence on a 2.7-acre lot in Lemon Heights, says DataQuick Information Systems of La Jolla. It sold for nearly $4.47 million. . . . In general, the housing market was a roller coaster ride this year, with sales plummeting nearly 30% during the early months, then stabilizing before increasing slightly in November. Home values? They continued to drop all year. Last month the price of a median-priced home fell 2.5% to $195,000 from $200,000 a year ago.

MOVING ON: A Mediterranean home in former President Richard Nixon’s Western White House compound is for sale. Priced at $3.2 million, the seven-bedroom home is directly across from Nixon’s La Casa Pacifica in Cotton’s Point. . . . Developer Bob Curtis, the owner, is moving to Santa Barbara, where he is building a ranch. “It’s on beautiful grounds,” says Nancy Lavigne, a Coldwell Banker Corp. agent in Newport Beach. “You’re going to buy a piece of history.” The Nixon home is owned by Allergan Inc. founder Gavin Herbert, a longtime Nixon friend.

HOMELESS: HomeAid, the nonprofit group started by the building industry, will break ground on three Orange County shelters early next year. They are: Casa Theresa, a home for pregnant women in crisis in Orange; the expansion of Mary’s Shelter, a home for unwed, pregnant minors in the Tustin area; and what will be the county’s largest AIDS hospice, a 24-bed house in Santa Ana. . . . “It’s been a tough year for builders, but we get so much help from them,” says HomeAid spokesman Michael Lennon.

WEATHER: Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers. Highs: low 60s; lows: mid-50s. (B10)