Melissa Hatch

For months we’ve been inundated with headlines about rocketing home values and the housing supply crunch. Plenty of pontificators have tried to spell out the reasons for the supply crunch. Many blame the slowdown in new home construction since the housing market crash of 2008. They point the finger towards nearly 15 years of below-average new home starts. We’ve generally accepted that the growth of new supply hasn’t kept up with the pressures of demand from an aging-in population.  Population projections show us that the demand for homes will remain steady for the foreseeable future. As millennials age into homeownership, their familial needs will continue to drive the demand for housing. For many, the new work-from-home standard highlights the need for square footage—and a lot of it. Home-seeking millennials will continue to need family homes with a reasonable amount of living space.  The SALT deduction cap placed an instant tax burden on many upper middle-income families in mega mark

August 26, 2015 So this is just for fun. A piece about rocking chairs. Really, just for fun. I became curious about rocking chairs quite a few months ago when I was rocking my son to sleep. Then I fell asleep. Since it’s August, I’m even more enamored with the things. They are a stationary staple of the vision I have of American summer. The thing that endears me most about the rocking chair—even more than its mystical place with mother and child—is the American porch. Rocking chairs are on relaxed porches across America in all types of settings—lake houses, tract houses, small houses on big acreage, farm houses, even the front porch of my aunt’s condominium. A couple rocking chairs flanking a screen door on a wood-decked porch, and bam, you have an image of an American home. I picture relaxing to the rocking rhythm on that porch with a cold drink in my hand, maybe even at sundown when the relentless summer sun finally breaks and all is calm and still. The symbol of the

During the process of acquiring a home loan, the phrase “debt-to-income ratio” is thrown around a lot. It’s a very important equation that allows the lender to determine whether or not a borrower can feasibly afford to repay a loan. Debt is a part of life. Most of us have it, and not all debt is bad debt. A mortgage is a debt obligation and often propels peoples’ financial futures. Car loans, while they don’t necessarily help our financial picture, are often essential in our lives. The same goes for student loans and any other monies owed. When a mortgage lender pulls a client’s credit report, he or she is able to see the bigger picture of debts owed. The loan officer adds up each and every monthly debt obligation, including any child support and monthly/minimum credit card payments. (As a side note, if you use a credit card regularly to pay for everyday items such as groceries and gas and subsequently pay that credit card off in full each month, the minimum monthly amount

Every loan has a story, and it’s the underwriter’s job to verify that story for the money source. The underwriter is a silent participator in the loan process who must give her final approval for the buyer to qualify for a home loan.  The underwriter, however, is by no means really silent. Most buyers never speak to the underwriter working on their loan, but the underwriter is indeed one of the most significant players in the overall journey of acquiring a home mortgage.  When eager homeowners first set out to qualify for a home loan, they speak to a mortgage lender, or loan officer, who reviews important information about them, such as their income, assets, debt, and overall credit picture. If the loan officer feels that the buyers are indeed strong candidates for a particular type of mortgage, he or she will issue what’s called a pre-qualification for a home loan. This is often referred to as a “pre-qual.” A pre-qual is just what it sounds like—a preliminary qualification.   This p

The appraisal is a critical component in the overall sale of a home, and many people overlook just how significant this piece of the puzzle really is. An appraisal is an informed opinion of a home’s value. This opinion, albeit an expert’s perspective, is subjective, but it is treated as the accurate and credible value of a property. In other words, when an appraiser puts a value on a home, it sticks, and is generally accepted as the actual value of a home. It is important to recognize that while buyers may be willing to pay one price for a home, if the buyers are getting a loan on the home and it doesn’t appraise, then the buyers may or may not be obligated to pay that initial agreed-upon amount. The appraisal contingency is an important layer of protection in the residential purchase contract. Not only does it protect buyers from overpaying for a property, it prevents lenders from betting on a property that may or may not be worth the contract price. It also protects housing markets

One of my best friends once told me that she is a great cook with a great recipe. A recipe-follower, I am not. Cooking was always a creative end to my day—a way to unwind with some colorful ingredients and a glass of wine. With a now-three-year-old, cooking has become an act of togetherness. My Wyatt loves to cook. He loves to measure, dump, stir, and flip, and like his mother, would prefer to just wing it and let the creativity stir up a concoction that someone may or may not want to eat on the other end. Other than telling my husband to spread “about 3 tablespoons” of olive oil in a pan only to be asked how much a tablespoon is, I’ve never really precisely measured my ingredients. But you can’t tell a three-year-old to just splash some vanilla in the bowl unless you really like vanilla. I learned in my mother’s kitchen, and now I have a little one to pass those skills to. Over the past few weeks, I’ve realized that in order to pass down the kitchen lessons that I acquired,

  CALIFORNIA BEACH BUNGALOW In July of 2013, I completely gutted and remodeled a beach house in Huntington Beach, California.  I'd been searching for the right property for over six months, and when my husband and I had the opportunity to purchase this one, we pounced.  This 1960s bungalow was sound structurally, but everything was grandma original.  The real challenge came in getting the property to rent for top dollar on a budget.  Someday, my husband and I plan to live on the property, and when that time comes, I will want to do a complete rebuild with new finishes.  So I couldn't exactly create my dream kitchen.  Here's a peek at my fiscally responsible kitchen.  Before The cabinet that the microwave sat on was free-standing, so I opted to remove it since it didn't match the other cabinets, which were solid maple. Notice the ancient intercom?  The white thing next to the intercom below the top cabinets is a trash trap--one of my favorite features of the ho

Design is not about perfection.  It's about meaning.  We build our homes—with our lives—over time.    They don’t just poof, come together, like some magical HGTV home show.    The vase you see when you walk through my front door came from a boutique I fell in love with in Albuquerque on a fun trip with my husband, then boyfriend. I delivered my first original research on that trip.   The top of the vase is cracked because the wind blew it over while we were trying to load it in the back seat of my BMW coupe.   Oh how I loved that car.   Oh how I fretted over that vase.   It’s glued back together now, and I see a memory.    We find ways to incorporate our memories into our homes, and that’s the real meaning of design.   The problem may be that those vases or those knick-knacks we pick up along our journey don’t always look so good when displayed.   But with the right eye, and the right surrounding elements, sometimes they can all come together beautifully so tha