Merced County's Real Estate Market:
Merced County (pronounced "Mer-SED"), is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, north of Fresno and southeast of San Jose. As of 2000 the population was 210,554. The county seat is Merced. The county is named after the Merced River.
Los Banos is a city in Merced County, California, near the junction of State Route 152 and Interstate 5. The population was 25,869 at the 2000 census. As of 2006 the World Gazetteer calculates the population as 35,054. The name los banos has its origins with Spanish and was named after the nearby creek and the seasonal spring baths that feed natural wetlands in the western San Joaquín Valley. The original Spanish spelling was Los Baños, meaning "the baths". Its official spelling is without the eñe. However most official signs, even on Interstate 5, do insert the tilde above the n. It can be pronounced as if the eñe were present as in "los banyos," or as it is spelt, as in anglicized "loss bannos". The city is served by Los Banos Municipal Airport for air transport access.
As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 4,581 people, 1,424 households, and 1,116 families residing in the city.
