The real estate community can nominate architects, developers and others for the Chicago Association of Realtors “Good Neighbor Awards,” all the way through February. The Good Neighbor Awards help the public appreciate real estate’s role in responsible urban development and

First American Properties is considering the construction of 39 rental apartments in downtown Winnetka. The area had formerly been part of a larger project to build 31 luxury condominium apartments at the site by New Trier Partners. Discussion concerning

Home values continued their downward slide with Tuesday’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index, the survey of home values by Standard & Poor’s that is considered the definitive voice on home prices. With a monthly decline of 1.3 percent and a yearly fall

Kelly Byrne has joined Koenig & Strey Real Living Real Estate as a broker associate. Byrne, who has been in real estate since 2005, will be working at the Gold Coast office, located at 900 N Michigan Ave in Chicago on

The Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) provision in the Dodd-Frank bill is unquestionably the most controversial aspect of the legislation’s housing-related rulings, and since the start of 2012, eyes have been fixed on the fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency

Each year, the Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) Board of Managers elects officers from among their ranks to guide the company through the upcoming year. This year’s officers were recently announced, and bring an immeasurable level of experience to

The Census Bureau released its latest numbers on housing vacancies yesterday for the fourth quarter, and the results were in-tune with the more recent trends in housing – a 9.4 percent vacancy rate for rentals and a 2.3 percent

Zachary Knebel, Kelly Fondow and Patti Sprafila Wagner are the new Realtors who will be serving  buyers and sellers throughout the Oak Park area, announced Weichert, Realtors on Monday. “It’s rewarding to learn not only that the real estate

Following the long-delayed appointment of Director Richard Cordray, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has hit the ground running in 2012, launching investigations into PHH Corp and releasing new subprime loan metrics for lenders. Now, it’s setting its sights on

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced new rules and regulations to protect the housing rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals at the 24th National Conference on LGBT Equality. Shaun Donovan, the secretary of

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) released its latest Case-Shiller Home Prices Indices today, showing that home prices fell again from October to November and posted new post-housing bubble lows for home values. Both the 10- and 20-City Composites fell by

Housing inventory dipped 17 percent year-over-year, bringing the long-bloated housing marketplace closer to equilibrium – at least among visible inventories. As tracked by Bill McBride of Calculated Risk, though the declines are seasonally inspired (inventory typically declines through the

Industry representatives of the manufactured home business are prepping for a Wednesday testimony before the House Financial Services Committee that will, according to reports, spotlight the critical failures of legislation dating back to

The latest Mortgage Monitor from financial firm Lender Processing Services (LPS) was a study in contrasts, showing that though originations continue to decline, the quality of those originations continues to improve. Originations were down 10.1 percent from November to

Principal write downs have emerged, in the past month, as one of the major controversies on Capital Hill, with Congressional Democrats and the White House lobbying for such a program from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) – and

Both buyers and sellers should be made aware that buying a home is often not a quick process. LeapRE found that last year, the average time taken from the contract to the closing was 53 days. The chart below