National News

The 4 Reasons Why Housing Inventory is So Darn Low

We all know that housing inventory remains at record-low levels; why is that the case, though? The other day, we reported that housing inventory increased 4.7 percent in March to a 5.2-month supply. Though technically an increase, that represents

Chicagoland Home Prices Post Double-Digit Hike in Case-Shiller

Home prices offered few surprises in the latest Case-Shiller report. Home prices in the Chicagoland area rose 10.8 percent year-over-year in February, according to the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard & Poor’s. Still, prices in the area

How Distressed Homes Went From Prominence to Nonexistence

Distressed home sales were once the most visible characteristic of the housing market, but they’ve taken a much-desired back seat in recent months. Buried in NAR’s latest existing-home sales report was a precious nugget of housing news – in

Pending Home Sales Finally Reverse Course in March

It’s been a rough year for pending home sales, but March finally brought some good news to the beleaguered housing stat. Pending home sales reversed a longstanding trend of declines in March, posting their first increase in nine months, according

Chicagoland’s Housing Market is Not Selling as Fast as You Think

We keep hearing about how time on market continues to fall, but what do the averages tell us about how fast our market really is? Earlier this week, we reported that nationwide, time on market has fallen seven days

5 Peculiarities in the New Construction Marketplace

Fresh numbers dropped this week on the nation’s new construction markets, but there remain oddities and curiosities. The Census Bureau this week released fresh numbers on new single-family home sales, and it was a verifiable bloodbath. At a seasonally

Real Estate, Once Again, America’s Favorite Long-Term Investment

As a long-term investment strategy, few consumers were willing to touch real estate during the downturn, but new research suggests that has changed. Back in 2011, few people wanted to touch real estate with a 20-foot pole – what

NAR Finalizing .REALTOR Top-Level Domain

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is finalizing its acquisition of the .REALTOR top-level domain for use by members and associations. The new .REALTOR domain will be used as an alternative to the commonly used .com and .org and

Price Per Square Foot Skyrockets in Chicago

March was a very good month for price per square foot in our housing market, according to Movoto. Those signs of a housing recovery just became a bit brighter. According to the latest State of the Real Estate Market

6 Actually Important Findings From NAR’s Existing-Home Sales Report

While everyone fixates on the specific rate of existing-home sales, here were the similarly important findings in the report. By now, you’ve probably seen the headlines stemming from NAR’s latest existing-home sales report, namely that sales declined 0.2 percent

Lending Standards Have Barely Budged in the Last Year

We keep hearing from trade groups that lending standards remain high, and the data would seem to support that claim. It’s arguably the most common motif among housing trade groups today – lending standards remain high, and are limiting

Rent Takes a Much Bigger Bite Out of Chicagoan’s Incomes

We’ve been hearing for some time that rents are increasing, but new numbers from Zillow present the issue in a new light. Rising rents, like falling home prices, have been one of the prevailing narratives of the post-bubble housing

Why the Suburbs Aren’t Going Anywhere

Reports of suburbia’s death,  it would appear, have been greatly exaggerated. It’s been a common trope in post-bubble news coverage – the United States, after several decades of embracing suburban sprawl, is returning to its urban roots and, once

Tara Kelleher, Broker Associate, Hunter’s Fairway Sotheby’s International Realty, Barrington

Nothing beats a crisp, white blouse as a staple and “go-to” in my wardrobe.

Builder Confidence Inches Higher in April

Though still low, builder confidence showed improvement in April, according to new NAHB numbers. Builder confidence recovered somewhat from March to April, inching up from 46 to 47, according to the latest Housing Market Index from the National Association

Mortgage Master Continues To Expand Midwest Presence

Known as one of the largest privately owned mortgage companies in the country and a super regional mortgage bank, Mortgage Master announces it’s expansion of it’s Midwest production infrastructure and brand with the opening of it’s newest retail branch

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