Of the 72,731 listings on the market in all nine Chicagoland counties in 2011, 388 of those listings, or 0.53 percent, were co-ops. Of Cook County’s 39,358 listings, the co-op percentage was higher, with 352, or 0.89 percent. In

Q: Do All Jumbo Loans Require a 20 Percent Down Payment? A: This is a great question that I hear from agents and buyers all the time.  Both are usually shocked (yet excited) to hear YES, there are jumbo loan options

The housing boom temporarily changed many aspects of the real estate industry, and the stature of co-op buildings was one of them. Once a viable alternative to condominiums, co-ops gradually lost their appeal amongst the creative financing options and

The federal conforming loan limit was one of the most highly contentious issues in the tail end of 2011, but based on recent statistics, all that controversy seems to have been for naught. Originally passed in late 2008 to

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