By Peter Ricci June was a great month in real estate for the nine-county Chicago Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area, with sales rising 22.4 percent year-over-year and median price increasing 1.7 percent, the second month in a row for positive prices

Existing-home sale price for all housing types rose 7.9 percent year-over-year in June in the National Association of Realtors’ latest housing report. It’s the fourth straight month of yearly price increases, a streak that has not occurred since 2006.

By Stephanie Sims If it’s in a highly ranked school district or near top-notch public schools, your clients have just added about $1 million to their home’s value. Private schools are expensive, and in today’s times, people would rather

By Stephanie Sims How fast agents sell homes depends on a number of things – location, condition of the property, foreclosure/short sale status and the state of the market. But a hugely important indicator is how many days a

By Stephanie Sims With zombies trending lately, in pop culture and several times in the news, scarily enough, perhaps your clients have wondered aloud whether or not they should buy a property that would defend against any future apocalyptic

By Peter Ricci Chicago is the top buyer’s market in the nation, according to a new study of buyer and seller markets by real estate website Zillow. According to Zillow’s research, listings times in Chicago are longer than the

The RE/MAX Suburban team of Bob Baker, Jim Nelson, Sr. and Jim Nelson, Jr. were recently honored with the Distinguished Service Award for the brokerage’s performance in 2011 by the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network. The team, which

By Carlo Calma Fran Broude, president and COO of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, has announced that several of the brokerage’s agents have been named to the 2012 The Wall Street Journal/REAL Trends The Thousand Report, according to an issued

Real estate professionals who were featured in Chicago Agent magazine’s Who’s Who issue celebrated and mingled with colleagues and friends at CA‘s Who’s Who party at BoConcept in Lincoln Park. Specialty Templeton Rye cocktails and appetizers were served while

By Stephanie Sims It seems that agents who work with Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs) and complete Broker Price Opinions (BPOs) are also asked to submit to and pass mandatory criminal background checks, according to our friends at Agent Genius.

By Stephanie Sims There’s a lot of hype surrounding online referral generation, but sometimes, getting back to basics is key. While no one should ignore the benefits of generating referrals online, putting all your efforts in that basket is

Chief Economist for Fannie Mae Doug Duncan released a statement today that said housing market activity is on a steady incline toward improvement, “well ahead of last year’s pace.” Duncan’s statement coincides with Fannie Mae’s recent findings in their

  Chicago Lakeside Development was recently honored at The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development’s (UNCSD) Rio+20 Conference held June 20-22, as one of the world’s leading projects for sustainable building in the conference’s “Sustainia 100” list. In its

Is the 305 passing 312? New construction data from McGraw-Hill Dodge on high-rises in the U.S. contained an interesting nugget of information – from 2000 to 2011, there were more projects for buildings of 20 or more stories in

Kathy Dames, broker and owner or RE/MAX Ultimate Professionals in Shorewood, and her team have recently received recognition for the their overall 2011 performance from RE/MAX Northern Illinois, according to an issued press release. The group, who recently settled

Real estate data firm Reis, Inc. is reporting that average rent costs have reached a record increase in 74 out of 82 markets that it is tracking in the second quarter, including cities like Chicago, Miami, Seattle, San Diego