Round and round we go on the housing inventory roller coaster! Where did it stop in October? Existing-home sales may have dipped a bit from September to October, but there was one undeniably positive sign in NAR’s latest report

The Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago (HBAGC) recently announced the winners of its Key Awards for Excellence in Housing, and it gave its first-ever “Village of the Year” award to Orland Park. The HBAGC analyzed a community’s overall

Inventory shortages continued to cramp existing-home sales’ style, according to the latest analysis by NAR. Existing-home sales were down for the second month in a row in October, falling 3.2 percent from September, according to the National Association of

What types of homes have proven most popular with homebuyers in 2013? We take a look at recent NAR data to find out. Consumer preferences are an ever shifting, evolving landscape, and few regions of the economy shift more

Though the expected seasonal slowdowns are in force, Chicagoland nonetheless posted strong housing numbers in October. Homes sales in the nine-country Chicagoland area rose 9.6 percent year-over-year in October, with the area posting 9,303 sales for the month, according

The demand for downtown apartments is not as high as landlords expected it to be for this year. The overall downtown apartment occupancy rate in Chicago dropped to 92.6 percent in the third quarter, down from 95.3 percent a

Builder confidence held steady in November, with more builders seeing conditions as good than bad. Builder confidence for the newly built, single-family home marketplace was unchanged in November from a downwardly revised level of 54 in the latest National

The housing market has seen strong price gains through much of 2013, but has it made up all that lost ground from the downturn? Let’s start with the good news: there’s no way that the national housing market is

Measurement errors of any kind could land you in court, especially after Midwest Real Estate Data ruled that not filling out the approximate square footage field in a listing was against its rules. However, many agents still, whether on

I received no less than three phone calls last week from people who wanted to know if I had heard anything about whether the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 was being extended. I’m flattered that people see me

According to the 2013 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers survey, while housing has been recovering for the past two years, restrictive mortgage lending standards are preventing some financially qualified buyers from reaching their dreams,

While housing marches to the slow, steady drumbeat of recovery, the grass is getting greener and optimism is creeping back into the hearts and minds of both real estate professionals and homeowners. But the wild ride isn’t over, and

We often hear about how expensive condos are in our area, but how do they compare to other metro areas in the U.S.? Condo prices nationwide continued to increase in October, according to new analysis by the folks at

There are many components to a house, but how does the house’s overall size impact the space of those components? The last couple of weeks, we’ve been looking at the typical sizes of newly built single-family homes, and how

The Chicago Tribune recently released its list of the best places to work in Chicago, and the real estate industry is represented well among the top small (250 employees or less), midsize (250-999) and large (1,000 or more) businesses.

We keep wondering when/if the government will reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but key trends will determine how those reforms take place. It’s the question on many a real estate professional’s mind – when will the government get