Month after month, data comes out affirming the rising demand for rental units, and like the wider world of real estate, fresh and unusual details often accompanies it. A recent Wall Street Journal piece on the rent/homeownership dichotomy has presented

The Pending Home Sales Index, a leading measure of future home sales activity from NAR, increased in March, contributing further to the new housing recovery. The index, which is based on contract signings, increased from 97.4 in February to

The new home sales data from earlier today confirms what we’ve been reporting for several weeks now – that a housing recovery is indeed in the works. There remains considerable debate, though, on the nature and extent of that recovery,

The 2010 First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit was one of the Obama administration’s first big policies for housing, but its impact has been debated since its expiration. And now Dean Baker, a noted economist and researcher, has published a detailed

Home prices in the Chicagoland area have fallen drastically over the last few years, but somehow Oak Park and River Forest have managed to keep prices up, falling only .27 percent while neighboring suburbs have fallen almost 30 percent.

The latest data on new home sales from the Census Bureau shows that though the market for new housing remains depressed, it is clearly moving toward greener pastures. For March 2012, new single-family home sales were at a seasonally

New analysis of HARP 2.0 is suggesting bold improvements for bank margins and other lending measurements in the second quarter of 2011. Conducted by the firm Keefe, Bruyete & Woods (KBW) and covered by HousingWire, the analysis looked at

Buyers have been on the hunt for once-in-a-lifetime deals in recent months, but an ad hoc index from The Washington Post suggests that strategy may no longer fly. Dubbing its approach the “low-ball index,” the Post looked at the number

February prices in the Chicago real estate market fell 2.5 percent from January and 6.9 percent from February 2011, according to the latest Case-Shiller. Nationally, the two major price indices of the Case-Shiller, the 10- and 20-City Composites, showed

Numerous reality television shows spotlighting renovation nightmares have popped up in recent years, and some are questioning their impact on potential homebuyers. Displaying the ugly side of buying a beautiful home, several of the shows were highlighted in a recent article

U.S. News just released its Best Business Jobs list, and real estate agents, boosted by new BLS stats, ranked quite highly in the list. According to U.S. News, over the next few years, businesses in the U.S. are on track to

Housing inventory declined yet again in March, and real estate analysts are debating its implications for the wider housing market. Based on the latest numbers from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), inventory declined from 2.40 million in February

With active listings as of April 2, 68 percent of agents do not provide virtual video tours of their listings. The remaining 25 percent use one of the major companies for virtual tours, while 7 percent of agents use

We recently asked whether or not Facebook is a waste of time for Realtors, based on new research from the Pew Research and American Life Project regarding Facebook user behavior. It was determined that no, Facebook was not a

Where did you grow up? Palos Heights. What is your favorite free-time activity? Hanging out at the lakefront! What do you do to relax when you’re stressed?

Multifamily real estate was one of the big surprises of 2011, and analysts are expecting big things of the sector in 2012. Fannie, the largest single participant in multifamily mortgage debt, is anticipating a 30 percent jump in multifamily