Diane Aigotti and Edward Brady have been re-elected to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago’s board of directors, and Owen Beacom has been newly elected to the board. Mary Cahillane and Mark Eppli will also on new roles

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) added 40 new metro areas to its Improving Markets Index (IMI) in its latest release yesterday, bringing to total number of cities to 76 across 31 states. Designed to track housing markets throughout

Strategic defaults, economic-speak for walking away from a distressed property, are not only on the rise but, according to some sources, an economically-feasible option for underwater homeowners. According to a survey conducted by Paola Spienza and Luigi Zingales, two

Not even a week after the Federal Reserve published an economic white paper urging government action on REOs, word has trickled out of Washington that the government, in cooperation with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is planning a pilot

Secretary Shaun Donovan of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that 13 communities from around the U.S. are to receive $3.6 million in Choice Neighborhoods Planning

Expectations for both homeowners and consumers rose in promising ways in December in the latest Fannie Mae National Housing Survey. According to a press release from the GSE, the percentage of Americans who said the economy was on the

Residential construction employment finished 2011 in positive territory, the first time that the sector has experienced gains in six years, according to new data from Calculated Risk’s Bill McBride. Not since 2005, when residential construction increased by an incredible

The CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI), the influential measure of home values that is used by the Federal Reserve in its analysis, came out earlier today, showing values in November continued their winter slide. A three-month weighted average of

Freddie Mac has announced new policies for unemployed borrowers that can grant the troubled homeowners up a year in breaks from their mortgage payments. According to a HousingWire article on the policies, which go into effect Feb. 1, Freddie

The mortgage insurance tax deduction, a commonly-used feature that can save homeowners to the tune of hundreds of dollars a year, could be a thing of the past, according to a new piece by HSH. First approved by Congress

Chicago appears to be the location for a January 31 hearing on the maintenance of foreclosed properties, according to a National Mortgage News piece on the subject. Two Democratic congressman, Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Danny Davis of Illinois, want not only the

Following in the steps of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac has eliminated a major restriction to borrowers seeking to refinance with existing servicers. Beginning yesterday, borrowers now have no credit score requirement for refinancing, as long as they have at

Coldwell Banker is pleased to announce Joe Siciliano as the newly appointed brokerage manager for the Halsted office in Chicago. This is in addition to Siciliano’s current managerial position at Coldwell Banker’s Lakeview office. Siciliano has been working in

Pulte Group Inc. has purchased 45 bank-owned lots in the western suburb of Burr Ridge located south of 79th Street between Country Line and Wolf roads. According to Crain’s, the lots are part of a 52-lot development that was

Richard Cordray, the former Attorney General of Ohio, was officially sworn in as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a long-awaited appointment that had been stalled by Congressional stonewalling. The question for real estate professionals, though, is

April 1 is the set date for when the new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee fees will rise by 10 basis points as the primary funding method for the government’s recently-passed payroll tax cut extension, and Lenders One,