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

Improved employment figures and record home affordability levels could spawn a minor housing recovery this year, analyst Mark Fleming said in the CoreLogic MarketPulse report. Fleming said economic concerns peaked in the summer of 2011 when politicians were stuck

By Tara Steele, AGBeat The housing market continues to struggle as Realtors report one in three contracts now fail, up nearly 10 percent from the year prior. Failures are due to declined mortgage applications or failed underwriting as appraised

The Federal Housing Administration will toughen its standards for approving lenders that insure mortgages on its behalf and force more of them to buy back defaulted loans. FHA Commissioner Carol Galante said the upcoming rule changes will help the

Construction has been one of the hardest hit sectors of the housing downturn, and though economic tides remain uncertain, the growing multifamily market has been a source of growth and jobs for construction workers. As a recent HousingWire article paints

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has been generating a fair amount of media buzz the last couple months, but unfortunately, little has been positive. Beginning with a University of Pennsylvania study that severely questioned the agency’s finances going forward,