The popular photo app Instagram has backtracked on Tuesday’s announcement of new policies that granted it carte blanche to sell users’ photographs without providing the user notification or payment for the use. The new policy sparked understandable fury from Instagram’s

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, the leading measure of builder confidence for the newly-built, single family home market, rose for the eighth consecutive month in December, hitting its highest mark since April 2006. Rising two

The goal for any real estate agent is to find a fresh, exciting marketing platform that can render their properties and business in a new, enticing manner to potential clients, and Internet video, YouTube specifically, is a fabulous way

Declining foreclosure activity and strengthening home sales contributed positively to home prices in October, with FNC’s latest Residential Price Index increasing 3.7 percent year-over-year for the month. In addition, the Residential Price Index was up 0.4 percent from September

It’s official: it appears the mortgage interest deduction is now in play when it comes to the fiscal cliff debate. President Barack Obama signaled that the interest deduction may go away unless Republicans agree to increase taxes on higher

Q. Where Do You See the Housing Market Going in 2013? A. I am very bullish on the housing market. I think we are amidst a full real estate recovery. There is a shortage of good properties for sale, historic low

According to the Trulia American Dream survey, consumer optimism about homeownership is improving, with one in four consumers feeling more positive about homeownership than they did six months ago, and one in three renters planning to buy a home

By Peter Ricci The American Enterprise Institute strikes again! After being one of the first major research firms to call the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) finances into question, the Institute has published another analysis of the FHA’s books, and

By Peter Ricci Some of the nation’s top homebuilders, including PulteGroup and Lennar Corp., are finding a substantial revenue stream from an unlikely source – mortgage lending. Both builders, reports Bloomberg, have seen sizable returns from their in-house mortgage

New Prices, New Seller, Same Great Location! Ideally situated at the southeast corner of Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood, just north of Lincoln Park, is 2930 North Sheridan Road. The building features one and two bedroom, tastefully remodeled residences along

The precipitous decline of mortgage interest rates has been one of the major stories in real estate in 2012, but recent actions by the Federal Reserve has some thinking that rates could fall even further in

The Chicago Association of Realtors (CAR) Board of Directors approved an additional $15,000 contribution to the Realtors Relief Foundation in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. This brings the association’s total contribution up to

By Peter Ricci NAR’s 2012 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers taught us many things, but perhaps the most notable was the continuing domination of the Internet in the home searching process. Ninety percent of homebuyers, we found, now use

In the last few years, there have been some big changes in Cuba. Fidel Castro is no longer in power, having passed the baton to his young brother Raul; citizens are allowed to purchase cell phones; and now, a

In its latest American Dream Survey, real estate website Trulia found that 93 percent of millennials who rent plan to purchase a home some day, and 72 percent of the entire demographic consider homeownership to be part of their American

By Peter Ricci According to Nielsen, the majority of cell phone users now utilize smartphones, and Pew Research has found that 22 percent of adults use tablets. Clearly, as consumers, we’re becoming more and more mobile, and we’re spontaneously crafting