Joseph & Cheryl Melendez's (melendezteam) Blog

   The Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed an increase in home prices for the second month in a row.  This index measures home prices in 20 cities across the country.  Couple that with the Orange County Register reporting an increase in the median price of a home in this area and you get a feeli...

Great weekend at the Corn festival in La Habra, California. A fun weekend filled with a parade, carnival rides, great food booths and a marketfare ares for vendors. Cheryl and I had a booth and in was so much fun, but long days. We met some new friends and saw somw old ones and reconnected. We al...

  Our friendly Orange County Register (yes the same paper that bashed real estate for 3 straight years) reported in the Wednesday business section that "the housing market is on the mend".  They also report that this is the "fourth consecutive month the index indicated prices have turned the corn...

Newsweek magazine says it is.  Leading economists say it is.  The media says it might be.  So the big questions continues to be, is the recession over?  With corporate earnings up and resale housing numbers improving it would appear that the economy may be turning the corner.  There is a long roa...

For years the Orange County Register was forecasting a bursting of the housing bubble when real estate prices were going up and the market was strong.  As in any economic cycle they were bound to be right at some point and the economy fell into recession taking the housing market with it.  That w...

 As you all know by now, any lender ordering appraisals on conventional loans must go through an appraisal management company.  Loan officers, processors, or anyone associated with the origination side of the business cannot be involved as it could "influence" the appraiser.  The big banks are al...

   Another article in the Orange County Register quoted a report from the California Association of Realtors that says the median priced home in Orange County increased 10% to $474,110.  They state that number is up 9.7% from April and it is the fourth monthly gain in the last five months.  It w...

The Orange County Register which bashed real estate for the last several years seems to be back on the real estate bank wagon.  On the front page of the Business section is news that Or­ange County's median sales price rose to $410,000 which is the highest it has been in 7 months.  The main reaso...

With the wild spike in interest rates last week it is important to understand how locking an in­terest rate in works.  Once a property is in escrow we have the options of locking in an interest rate for the term of the escrow.  If the rates go up the buyer is protected and if the rates go down  w...

   Over the last couple of months we have had a couple situations you rarely see on condo pur­chase transactions.  On conventional loans (not FHA or VA) the lenders usually need a HOA Certification to verify information about the condo complex.  This information includes the number of rental unit...