The spring homebuying season is traditionally the most active time of the year for real estate agents, and these three trends will define 2013’s season. Though the weather may not be cooperating here in Chicago, the spring season has

What communities in Chicagoland have the highest percentage of mortgage-free homes? Who are the homeowners in the Chicagoland area who truly owns their home, mortgage free? According to a new study from Crain’s, they’re either old or wealthy. In

Though the housing market is recovering, first-time homebuyers have thus far been an absent component of that recovery; when will they return? The housing market may be showing its best signs of life in years, but one essential component

Residential construction went through a rough patch after 2006, but new Census Bureau data shows the market roaring back to life. Residential construction had a strong month of activity in February, with spending on projects in February rising to

Housing inventory shortages have been an epic problem in some housing markets, but what neighborhoods in Chicago are plagued by low inventory? Housing inventory in March was nearly 20 percent lower than a year ago, and though that’s the

What MLB baseball teams are surrounded by the most valuable real estate? And do their winning percentages influence the local real estate markets? It’s opening day for Major League Baseball, and Trulia, as it seems to do with just

The turnaround in home prices has been one of the major narratives of the housing recovery, but could it be a curse disguised as a blessing? By most measures, U.S. home prices fell by more than a third from

Shadow inventory is down an impressive 28 percent from its 2010 peak, but do its effect still languish in certain markets? CoreLogic’s latest report on shadow inventory in the U.S., which surveyed the nation’s inventory of seriously delinquent, REO

According to new research from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, homeownership among Hispanics is surging. Hispanics have been garnering increasing attention in recent months for their growing importance to the U.S. housing market, and a new

With dozens of communities and nearly 10 million residents, Chicagoland offers homebuyers a wealth of options, but these 21 markets stand apart from the rest. Zillow named Chicago the best market in the U.S. for homebuyers in 2012, and

The nation’s shrinking housing inventory has begun affecting pending home sales, the National Association of Realtors has reported. Pending home sales stalled a bit in February, as the nation’s shrinking housing inventory offered homebuyers fewer and fewer choices. The

Though the sales of new single-family home sales faltered a bit month-to-month, they retained their strong yearly gains. After posting its strongest numbers in more than four years in January, sales of new single-family home sales faltered a bit in

A new study commissioned in part by the National Association of Realtors found that Chicago residences located near public transportation outperformed – by a wide margin – competing properties on the real estate market. A new study by the

The spring homebuying season is an integral time for real estate, and Freddie Mac is predicting 2013’s will be good news all around. The last couple months, there have been repeated signs of a housing recovery. From rising home

Nationwide home prices continued to recover in January, but how did our local housing market perform by comparison? Chicago home prices continued to lag behind most of the nation’s major housing markets in January according to the lastest Case-Shiller

The NAHB’s Improving Markets Index improved yet again in March, as more and more metropolitan areas join in on the recovery. The National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Improving Markets Index expanded to 274 metropolitan markets in March, as more and