Competitive home prices and low interest rates created record affordability levels, but a new study finds housing costs are still quite high for many. Competitive housing prices and falling interest rates pushed housing affordability to record levels in 2012,

The FHFA has been resisting calls for a principal reduction program, but a new study by the CBO has lent considerable heft to the policy’s corner. It’s been an ongoing saga, one of Shakespearean proportions: will the FHFA ever

According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, home prices rose 0.7 percent in February compared to January, and a whopping 7.1 percent compared to February 2012, representing the largest gain in over six years and meeting economists’ expectations. Inventory

Online ratings systems are popular when it comes to users reviewing and rating just about any product or service, including real estate. But concerns as to whether online ratings programs yield dependable results helped launch a Realtor-specific ratings program. The

Construction spending in the U.S. seems to be a bit of a roller coaster as of late. After rising in February, spending dropped to $856.7 billion. This is 1.7 percent below the revised February estimate of $871.2 billion, according

Getting an appraisal done can be compared to a blind date. First, there is the phone call from someone you’ve never met; the one thing you have in common is a listing under contract. The call concludes with a

The government’s Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, received a stinging report from the inspector general of TARP that questioned its merits. The government’s Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, was among its major responses to the housing downturn,

Fannie Mae is releasing a loan-level credit performance data on 18 million mortgages, which will help develop potential risk sharing transactions. Fannie Mae announced that it is making loan-level credit performance data available on over 18 million single-family mortgages

Mel Watt, the Democratic representative from North Carolina, is President Obama’s pick to head the FHFA, a role that would give him enormous sway over housing. News broke yesterday that Mel Watt, a long-time Democratic representative from the state

Residential construction spending continued its forward progress in March, and the construction industry on the whole expanded impressively. Residential construction had another strong month of activity in March, with construction spending on residential projects in the month rising to

Koenig & Strey expands their company footprint in Chicago’s north suburbs with the opening of a new brokerage office in Skokie. Koenig & Strey Real Living has announced the opening of a new brokerage office in Skokie, located at

Consumers, real estate agents and even lenders have been sharing the optimism on the housing recovery, but how do appraisers see things? Slowly but surely, more and more components of the U.S. economy have jumped on the housing recovery

Chicago posted year-over-year increases in the February Case-Shiller, and though monthly prices were down, they mirrored prices in eight other major cities. There was good news and bad news for Chicago home prices in the latest Case-Shiller report from

The shortage of good housing inventory in Chicago is hardly news, but the extent of the decline for some neighborhoods is still quite surprising. News flash! Housing inventory in Chicago, as with most of the nation’s other major housing

Though March’s Pending Home Sales Index from NAR was a positive one, it suggests the low housing inventory levels are affecting home sales at the contract level as well. Pending home sales rose by both monthly and yearly measures

A study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York says homebuyers with student loans are less likely to take out mortgages than their counterparts. Student loan debt is big; in fact, it would be more accurate to