The news cycles have been awash in reports the last six months on the growing demand for rental properties in the U.S., but too often, renting’s success has been presented  as housing’s loss, a creation of the post-2008 market

American writer/journalist and iconic man of male bravado, Ernest Hemingway’s childhood home in Oak Park where he spent a great deal of time on various literary attempts, has been put on the market for $525K. The house, built in

Baird and Warner have announced that they have added two senior sales management professionals to their roster of brokers. Penny Sirott, formerly of Coldwell Banker, and Richard Murawski, from Koeing & Strey, specialize in real estate in the Chicagoland

Acting Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Carol Galante hinted at further changes in the FHA’s mortgage premium system on Wednesday, referencing revenue models that would complement the recently passed premium hikes for the agency’s

The Architecture Billings Index (ABI), one of the leading economic indicators of future construction activity, reported positive numbers yet again in January, marking the third straight month that the index has been in such territory, according to the most recent press release from

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Acting Director Edward DeMarco offered a long-awaited vision for the U.S. mortgage market, sending Congress a new plan detailing a secondary mortgage market without the presence of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. In his

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokeragerecognizes Nancy Gibson as top agent of Northbrook for the ninth year in a row, and the fourth highest producing agent within the entire Chicago North Shore region. Gibson has achieved this success through closing 55

Things have been pretty good for builders the last couple months. After two years of sideways growth, construction activity has been charting upward, builder confidence has been rising, and, in the most positive news of all, there have huge increases in multifamily originations,

Year-over-year homes in Illinois increased 16.1 percent in January to 6,435 homes, the strongest showing for the embattled housing market since 2007, according to data released today by the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR). Loretta Alonzo, the president of IAR,

Existing-home sales rose by 4.3 percent from December to January, marking the third time in the last four months that the key housing measure has shown monthly gains, according to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors

A lawsuit involving lender Quicken Loans began its arguments before the Supreme Court today, with the future of closing fees that lenders charge hanging in the balance. Officially called Freeman v. Quicken Loans Inc., the case originated in 2007, when

The state attorneys general mortgage settlement received almost immediate criticism from homeowner and housing advocates alike after its Feb. 9 announcement, with common complaints being the limited reach of the settlement and the numerous consumer groups that were either

Short sales have rightfully earned a reputation of being slow, plodding and, in some occasions, maddening, but a new bill introduced in the Senate yesterday seeks to cut through all the red tape and simplify the process. Brought before

Throughout 2011, housing inventory had been on a steady decline, a development that should be welcome, given the constant analyses on the excess housing supply as a result of boom-era overbuilding. As details emerge over the nature of those

The White House and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) are hard at work on a distressed housing program that would convert REO properties into investor-managed rental homes, and though the program seems to be going well in its initial

When the Smoke Free Illinois Act took effect Jan. 1, 2008, public places and places of employment throughout the state were required to be smoke-free inside and within 15 feet of entrances, exits, windows that open and ventilation intakes. The