County of Castles: Orange County Real Estate Blog

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Real Estate Agent - no current broker affiliation
orange county real estate, lake forest, first-time homebuyers, condos, homes in orange county, affordable homes
RECENT BLOG POSTS
The government's "Hope Now" hotline is open 24/7 to receive calls from homeowners who are having trouble keeping up with mortgage payments.  It's a free service that helps borrowers get in touch with the right people at their lenders to try and either work out a payment plan or modify their loan ...
03/13/2008
It's finally official.  FHA loan limits have temporarily been raised to over $700,000.  For the first time in a very long time, regular Californians can buy a regular home with a regular (non-jumbo) loan.And prices are down, way down.  In some cases, bringing the cost of renting and the cost of b...
03/06/2008
It's always nice when our government wants to hear what we think before spending our money.  We should take advantage of the opportunity and get involved.OCTA (Orange County Transportation Authority) is looking at six alternatives for major projects addressing our transportation needs.  In the in...
03/04/2008
Okay, I don't know if this is so much a recipe, as it is assembly instructions, but when I had occasion to need an appetizer that would taste great and feed many, I discovered I didn't know if there were extra stages to making this.  I'm here to say: there aren't.  This is about as simple as they...
02/25/2008
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It isn't often I see a really good article on regular news sites, but I did today.  This article (linked below) talks about some of the research that home buyers really need to do for themselves about a particular neighborhood, and also provides some resources for doing that research.We often sug...
02/25/2008
The USPS now raises the prices on stamps annually.  Here's this year's announcement.While the existence of the "Forever" stamp may make giving out 1-cent stamps seem less necessary, it is still a very inexpensive, high-impact way to reach out and touch your farm.  Sheets of 20 1-cent stamps can b...
02/11/2008
Today I was surfing the web and came across an article about homes which have been abandoned by both homeowner and bank: http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Article_busweek.aspx?cp-documentid=6015750>1=10833The article poses an interesting question.Sometimes in foreclosure a homeowner will simply ...
01/28/2008
Wow, some weather we're having!You know, this is a good time to talk about rain and buying a home.  Many of the finest homes in Southern California are built into, on top of, or just below hillsides.  When we get large amounts of water being absorbed into ground that isn't accustomed to it, somet...
01/28/2008
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The Fed just did something they haven't done since 2001 - changed the Federal funds rate between meetings!  Not only that, but they dropped it from 4.25% to 3.5%.Just to put into perspective how serious this is, I should point out that the next meeting of the Fed is a mere week away.  But their c...
01/22/2008
1 Comments
Ahh...The verdant hillsides, 70 degree temperatures, buyers calling me up and wanting to see homes... it must be spring!However, even I am surprised with the suddenness of the uptick in activity.  In the last 5 days I have been contacted by 3 of my buyers, showed several homes to one, nearly wrot...
01/15/2008
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Cindy Kalionzes

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