Just as many consumers ponder what McDonalds burgers are really made of, real estate professionals and journalists ask an equally probing question: What is a “McMansion”? According to research completed by Brian Miller, a sociologist at Wheaton College who has

Chicago real estate brokerage firm @properties has announced that company co-founders Michael Golden and Thaddeus Wong were named finalists in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2012 program in the

Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) multiple listing service has announced that they are a finalist in the “delivering customer satisfaction via social media,” award from Useful Social Media. MRED is facing fierce competition from across the country, but has

A mill fire in the British Columbia is impacting the current price of lumber, though the future for the construction material is still debatable. The result of wood dust, the fire has pushed the Random Lengths Framing Lumber Composite

Foreclosure rates continued their year-over-year declines in CoreLogic’s National Foreclosure Report for March, a monthly assessment of the foreclosure markets. The 69,000 completed foreclosures in March 2012 were 14,000 less than in March 2011, though they were a slight

A new task force created by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is targeting the few unincorporated areas in the county for annexation. An extension of a plan from 2011 that involved an unfulfilled $150 surcharge for the 98,200

The jumbo loan market, once a dominant force in mortgages, is a shadow of its former self, and with the Dodd-Frank legislation pending, some are wondering when the super-sized lending option will make a true return to the housing

In survey after survey, Americans reaffirm their interest in owning a home, but a new obstacle is hindering that dream for recent college graduates – student debt. Now totaling more than $1 trillion, according to a recent report from

Falling home values have been one of the more stubborn inhibitors to a true housing recovery, but new research by Clear Capital has found no such problems in the REO market. According to a HousingWire article on the research,

After tacitly supporting the policy and hinting at a definitive approach, the FHFA has delayed its decision on principal reductions. Facing mounting support for the policy, Acting Director Ed DeMarco reversed himself somewhat in early April when he came

Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) announced that it is the first official charter member of  the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO). RESO is a group of real estate organizations working together to develop and implement data standards that support innovation,

The minute the clock struck midnight early this morning, all broker and salesperson licenses expired in Illinois and new rules officially began covering who could practice real estate in the land of Lincoln and what requirements they needed to

After a couple of mild months, construction spending rebounded in March, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. For the month, spending was up 6.0 percent from March 2011 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $808.1

Freddie Mac’s average 30-year FRM fell again last week to 3.88 percent, an incredible 0.90 percent lower than April of 2011. Though low rates have become a seeming custom in recent months, an article from CNN Money offers one essential reminder –

Rental vacancies and the homeownership vacancy rate both fell in 2012’s first quarter, according to new data from the Census Bureau. For rentals, vacancies have been on a steady decline since 2010, when the rate was 10.6 percent in

By now, every agent has heard at least once how important the Internet is (heck, our entire last issue was devoted to it), but a new survey from HomeFinder.com has reaffirmed the continuing importance of real estate agents. In