The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) offered two plans for revamping mortgage servicing compensation. One model would reduce percentage-based servicing fees on government-sponsored enterprise loans and set aside three to five basis points of the principal balance to fund

The Appraisal Institute, the nation’s largest association of appraisers, has released a new form focused on adequately valuing the green features of a property. Appraisals have a long, storied history with many Realtors and builders, and sometimes not in

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may have stopped in Cleveland to speak about emerging market economies, but his comments during the Q&A session that followed, which included addresses on housing, are garnering all the attention. Repeating statements he made

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently awarded more than $2 million to the state of Illinois to help public housing agencies retain and hire service coordinators to work directly with families participating in HUD’s Housing

The question lately regarding mortgages is, how low can mortgage rates go? In the case of the 30-year FRM, the answer is still pending. After falling to a historical low of 4.09 percent, the 30-year rates have fallen yet again

The National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index, which measures the number of contracts to purchase previously owned homes, declined 1.2 percent from July to August, it still remains above 2010 levels. The August index, at 88.6, was

Coldwell Banker Honig-Bell, one of the largest residential real estate firms in Illinois, has just acquired the Coldwell Banker Primus offices in Algonquin, Cary, Crystal Lake, McHenry and Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. With this acquisition, Honig-Bell expands its sights

Standard & Poor’s released the latest Case-Shiller Indices on Tuesday, reporting gains in metropolitan home prices for the fourth straight month. Those indices, however, rely on nominal prices, not the “real” prices that consider inflation. But thanks to Bill

Vera and Pat Purcell, a successful husband-and-wife real estate team, have joined the Lake Forest office of Coldwell Banker Residential

After much debate, and many proposals passed, demolition on the Lincoln Park Hospital, which closed down in 2008, has finally begun. While some still strongly oppose this plan, this may be as good as it’s going to

Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the mammoth credit rating agency whose questionable ratings of risky credit derivatives are blamed for the 2008 financial crisis, is currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for ratings it gave to

The number of active mortgage originators declined for the fourth year in a row, a sign that economic conditions may not yet be ideal for sustained economic growth. According to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), which tracks

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage named Beth Martin, a member of the Lake Forest team, as the new marketing coordinator for the North Shore

The saga of One Museum Park West, the 53-story South Loop condominium project, continues; after facing a litany of setbacks that delayed the project for years and losing the backing of more than half the building’s buyers, developers Ronald

According to a new report from noted research firm CoreLogic, the shadow inventories for U.S. residential housing continued their downward slope in July, falling to 1.6 million units, or a five-month supply of homes. Shadow inventory properties that are

Property values are declining throughout the Cook County suburban areas, but property owners should not expect lower bills; rather, they can anticipate higher bills, as government bodies are raising taxes to shore up budget deficits. According to a detailed