Business News: Real Estate
Mary Ellen Podmolik's beat reporting on real estate and housing trends. Also check out her column, The Local Scene.
12:21 AM EDT, May 23, 2012
Local home sales jump, prices show stability
More condos were sold in the city of Chicago in April than in any month since June, at prices that were the highest since September.
8:37 AM EDT, May 12, 2012
Investors scouring Chicago for foreclosures
Pulling up to a distressed home for sale in Oak Lawn last month, Carl Courtright saw that two other potential buyers were looking at the property. He returned a while later to find a third competitor.
May 3, 2012
Vacant building ordinance nets $619,000 in fines so far
The city of Chicago assessed $619,000 in fines against more than 150 financial institutions in the first three months of the year for not following the city's vacant building ordinance, according to figures released Wednesday.
May 21, 2012
Executive profile: Andrew Berlin, Berlin Packaging Co.
Before the first pitch was thrown at the South Bend Silver Hawks' home opener last month, team owner Andrew Berlin stuck his hand under all the soap dispensers in the men's and women's bathrooms to make sure they worked.
11:37 PM EDT, April 19, 2012
Chicago-area home sales see boost, but prices still lagging
The Chicago area's housing market received a much-needed jolt in March as consumers and investors scooped up properties at bargain prices.
May 17, 2012
Foreclosures in Illinois bogged down
Foreclosure starts in Illinois are on par with those in other areas, but the state's court-supervised foreclosure system continues to bog down properties in the process.
9:59 PM EDT, April 24, 2012
Report confirms pressure on home prices
Home values in the Chicago area and eight other cities hit new post-housing crisis lows in February, according to a widely watched gauge of the real estate market released Tuesday.
10:19 PM EDT, April 17, 2012
HUD touts Pullman redevelopment
Standing in a community room on Chicago's Far South Side on Tuesday, Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, promised to return to cut the ribbon when the renovation of Pullman Wheelworks Apartments is compete.
April 7, 2012
New name, new strategy for longtime builder
Ken Neumann is back building houses in the Chicago area, but he's no longer focused on constructing thousands of homes in subdivisions for entry-level buyers.
12:14 AM EDT, April 16, 2012
Freddie Mac to ease refinancing program's guidelines for borrowers
Freddie Mac early this week will ease its mortgage underwriting formulas to boost the number of homeowners who qualify for the government's home loan refinancing program.
March 30, 2012
Credit crunch constrains mom and pop rental buildings
In the 15 years since he started buying small apartment buildings on Chicago's South Side, Steve Thomas has amassed more than 300 apartments and can boast a clean loan repayment history and a vacancy rate of only 4 percent.
March 23, 2012
Mortgage rates push past 4%
Mortgage rates are heading up, and consumers have an improving economy to blame.
March 22, 2012
Underwater mortgages hit minority communities twice as hard
About 25 percent of Chicago-area homes with a mortgage were underwater at the end of 2011, but homeowners in minority communities are twice as likely to have little or no equity in their homes, according to a report to be released Thursday.
March 22, 2012
Home sales activity, prices still moving in opposite directions
Existing home sales in the Chicago area continued in February to far surpass their year-ago levels, but prices in most areas were down more than 10 percent from a year earlier.
March 9, 2012
Robo-signing deal could be filed in court Friday
A $25 billion federal-state "robo-signing" settlement could be filed in federal court as early as Friday, after which states and the nation's top banks will begin a monthslong process of identifying potentially eligible homeowners, officials said Thursday.
February 17, 2012
Tax headaches can hit home
Being a homeowner comes with its fair share of headaches, and those pains can be sharpened at income tax time.
1:16 AM EST, February 16, 2012
MacArthur Foundation to help 2 local groups expand
One Chicago group that's determined to repopulate the city's vacant buildings and another that largely works behind the scenes to effect social change have been tapped by the MacArthur Foundation to receive almost $3 million in funding.
February 5, 2012
Pockets of hope in housing despair
The market has not been kind to the home seller.
February 10, 2012
Mortgage settlement details complicated, but 3 categories of homeowners eligible on case-by-case basis
The deal announced Thursday to help 1.75 million victims of the housing crisis represents the largest joint state-federal settlement in history, one aimed at correcting some of the abuses in the mortgage lending industry that have hurt former and current homeowners.
January 26, 2012
Illinois pays $4.8M in mortgage aid
Almost as many Illinois homeowners are being denied hardest-hit funds as are receiving them, but the program nevertheless distributed almost $4.8 million last year.
February 23, 2012
Home sales rise again, but prices fall to new low
The Chicago area has seen seven months of higher year-over-year home sales, raising the hopes of homeowners seeking to sell their homes this spring. But sellers, take note: Housing prices are headed in the wrong direction.
March 13, 2012
Putting homeless in abandoned properties fraught with legal problems
Since moving into a home eight weeks ago, Tene Smith has hung one of her paintings on a wall, a reminder of her youthful aspirations to become an artist. She's hosted a community group in her living room. Her daughter had a friend sleep over, and they danced much of the night.
February 10, 2012
$25 billion deal with banks will assist 60,000 in Illinois
Federal and state officials announced a long-awaited, $25 billion settlement with the nation's top five mortgage servicers Thursday that promises assistance for a select group of 1.75 million borrowers while setting new standards for how struggling homeowners are treated.
February 1, 2012
Chicago-area home prices post 3rd straight decline in November
Home prices in the Chicago area fell in November for the third consecutive month, putting them back at May 2001 levels, according to a widely watched index released Tuesday.
January 21, 2012
2011 Chicago-area home sales up slightly, but real estate agents guarded
Sales of existing homes in the Chicago area ended the year in the black, but barely, and real estate agents hope the increased momentum they saw last month carries into this year.
January 22, 2012
Condo buildings lacking FHA certification add hurdle for buyers and sellers
Buying a condominium is getting trickier for anyone who wants to put down only 3.5 percent and have the government insure their mortgage.
January 6, 2012
Chicago program turns vacant condo buildings into affordable rentals
As the housing market enters a new year of watching and waiting for stability to return, there is also some action afoot: Efforts are expected to take shape to tackle the vast swath of empty homes and fill them with residents — and in many cases, renters.
December 23, 2011
Making their way in lingering housing turmoil
The past year's housing market was not for the faint-hearted.
December 16, 2011
Foreclosure activity slips in much of Chicago area, nationwide
The number of homes in foreclosure dropped nationally and in most Chicago-area counties in November, but some areas saw more properties headed to court-ordered auctions.
December 15, 2011
Cook County puts mortgage companies on the hook for vacant buildings
The Cook County Board on Wednesday passed an ordinance designed to force mortgage companies to care for abandoned properties in the foreclosure pipeline, undeterred by a federal lawsuit filed earlier this week against a similar Chicago measure.
8:49 PM EST, December 12, 2011
Federal agency sues Chicago over vacant-property rules
The Federal Housing Finance Agency filed suit in federal court Monday against the city of Chicago to exempt all properties with a Fannie Mae- or Freddie Mac-owned mortgage from Chicago's vacant-buildings ordinance.
November 28, 2011
Developer Steve Fifield, Fifield Cos.
Developer and business partner wife develop new energy for building in Chicago
Driving around Chicago's West Loop, developer Steve Fifield rarely has a chance to keep two hands on the steering wheel as he points out all the residential and office projects he's been involved in during more than 30 years in Chicago development.
November 15, 2011
Cook County to have apartment shortage through 2020, report says
Tough economic times are forcing more Cook County residents to search for affordable apartments, but the dwindling supply is only expected to get worse.
October 21, 2011
Chicago housing inventory declines
Monthly home sales and median prices are a closely watched barometer of the housing market as the industry looks for any small sign of stabilization. Increasingly, inventory is garnering a fair share of attention too.
December 2, 2011
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare says proposed outpatient care center would add 950 permanent jobs
Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, parent of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, plans to add more than 950 permanent jobs at its Streeterville medical campus in Chicago if it gets the final approvals to begin construction of an outpatient care pavilion that would open in 2014.
October 14, 2011
Mortgage lenders poised to get more personal
Many consumers applying for a mortgage are going to start sharing more personal information with lenders next year, like it or not.
November 16, 2011
Home Affordable Refinance Program gets tuned up, expected to offer more hard-hit homeowners a chance at lower mortgage rates
The federal government on Tuesday announced the nitty-gritty details of its revamped refinancing program to help homeowners who are current on their loans but can't take advantage of low interest rates because they owe more on their homes than they are worth.
October 25, 2011
Obama plan aims to help struggling homeowners get refinancing
The Obama administration on Monday announced its latest attempt to stem the nation's housing crisis, this one focusing on borrowers who pay their mortgage on time but are unable to refinance their loans because their home values have plummeted.
10:13 AM EDT, October 3, 2011
Groupon's balancing act: Walking the tightrope as it surges from startup to megafirm, it has stumbled more than once
There's nothing like a few highly publicized amendments to a key Securities and Exchange Commission filing to act as a reality check for — and about — the Chicago startup Forbes dubbed the "fastest-growing company ever."
September 22, 2011
Foreclosure process caught in state bottleneck
More than three years into the housing crisis, the foreclosure process isn't speeding up. It's slowing down.
12:00 AM EDT, August 25, 2011
Distressed sales in spring down from 2010 level
Sales of foreclosed homes in the Chicago area and nationally were down from a year ago in the three months that ended in June, but they constituted a larger percentage of overall home sales as the conventional resale market weakened, according to new data.
September 23, 2011
JD Power ratings for builders draw a blank
For each of the last 14 Septembers, JD Power and Associates has published its annual report on homebuilder customer-satisfaction ratings. There will be no such report this year.
August 19, 2011
Chicago-area home sales climb 19.2% in July
Existing-home sales in the nine-county Chicago area rose 19.2 percent in July from their year-ago pace, the Illinois Association of Realtors said Thursday.
September 22, 2011
Homebuyers pick up bargains in August
Sales of existing single-family homes in the Chicago area rose 27.6 percent in August from their year-earlier pace, helped by realistic, opportunistic buyers like Danielle and Andrew Ferguson.
7:10 PM EDT, September 16, 2011
Chicago-area foreclosure filings, unemployment increase
The Chicago area recorded a dramatic increase in the number of homes that went into foreclosure in August, another worrisome sign that the housing crisis gripping the country is far from over.
September 14, 2011
1 in 4 mortgages in Chicago area underwater in 2nd quarter
More than 387,500 residential mortgages in the Chicago area, representing one-quarter of all homes with a mortgage, were underwater at the end of June, according to new data released Tuesday.
September 2, 2011
Consumer confidence limits Chicago-area builders
Sales of new homes in the Chicago area aren't expected to top 2,500 this year, while housing starts may near only 2,000, making for a new-home construction landscape that hasn't been seen for more than 60 years.
7:00 AM EDT, September 14, 2011
Struggling homeowners could get up to $25K from 'hardest hit' loan fund
Unemployed and underemployed homeowners in the Chicago area could soon receive up to $25,000 in mortgage help under a $345 million federally funded program that will be announced Thursday by the state of Illinois.
August 4, 2011
Homebuilders pick their spots in search for buyers
The familiar sights and sounds of homebuilding are getting easier to spot, if you know where to look.
August 17, 2011
Credit card delinquencies fall to 1994 levels
Consumers, at least by one measure, continue to do a good job of keeping on top of their credit card bills.
August 17, 2011
Big changes in housing market and financing mean no turnaround in sight yet
Housing affordability is the best it's been in eight years, and mortgage rates remain under 4.5 percent, yet hopes have withered that a recovery in the housing market will take shape next year.
July 27, 2011
In seasonal rise, Chicago-area home prices inch upward in May
An expected seasonal uptick in home sales caused an index of Chicago-area home prices to rise in May, but worries persist that the nation's housing market continues to do little more than "bounce along the bottom."
August 23, 2011
Mortgage delinquencies tick up
Mortgage delinquencies across the nation rose in the three months that ended in June but remain below their year-ago levels, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Monday.
10:10 AM EDT, August 18, 2011
Condo sales up in some Chicago neighborhoods
The real estate industry's mantra of location, location, location is proving true in Chicago. Just add inventory, inventory, inventory to the equation.
July 29, 2011
High-end Hinsdale project gets a second chance
In July 2008, the first $1 million sale closed at The Hamptons of Hinsdale, a luxury development that was intended to bring more than 120 new town homes and condominiums to the community.
7:19 PM EDT, August 17, 2011
Lack of water leaves development wilting
Another Chicago-area housing development with lofty ambitions has been stalled, but not just by the cold realities of the real estate market.
July 12, 2011
Chicago home price numbers inflated
The Illinois Association of Realtors said Monday that the median price it reported for home sales within the city of Chicago was inflated in May, and mistakes in its reports could go back more than three years.
9:03 PM EDT, June 22, 2011
Illinois fines first company in foreclosure document probe
The state of Illinois said it found evidence of "negligence or incompetence" in PHH Mortgage Corp.'s foreclosure procedures and levied a fine of $290,000.
August 5, 2011
Kraft's split: Spinoffs often prove successful
Corporate conglomerates that make everything from cellphones to liquor to processed American cheese are calling it quits, seeking to unlock shareholder value in a down economy by splitting into multiple companies.
11:21 PM EDT, June 21, 2011
Chicago condo prices see price gains but more needed
Sales prices of condominiums within the city of Chicago recorded a third month of year-over-year improvement in May, a small positive sign in a market that continues to struggle.
July 11, 2011
Peter Testa, president of Testa Produce
Keeping track of everything from blueberries to a $20 million green building
Peter Testa worries about food safety when he goes to bed, and he's still thinking about it when he wakes up four hours later to start another day as president of Testa Produce Inc.
June 19, 2011
Shrewd investments enable farmers to live off the land they sold, then bought
Farmers, who bet on the weather each growing season, have emerged as the shrewdest gamblers in the housing industry.
June 22, 2011
Office design show makes chairs the center of attention
The quest for a truly comfortable office chair continues in earnest, both by consumers and the industrial designers, anthropologists, psychologists and manufacturers who spend years bringing a chair to market.
May 2, 2010
Getting the lead out: New rules for contractors
Hiring a professional for jobs that range from sanding painted woodwork to gutting a kitchen just got more complicated and expensive for homes that are at least 32 years old.
8:53 PM EDT, June 21, 2010
Program for struggling homeowners finds itself struggling
Another 2,538 Chicago-area residents received permanent loan modifications last month, but figures released Monday show the federal government's $75 billion housing rescue program is struggling to help more homeowners.
January 6, 2009
NEW JOBS CAN BE FOUND, EVEN IN A RECESSION
The job of finding a job
5 tips for the hunt
October 3, 2008
THE LOCAL SCENE
When competition is literally on the block
When Jan Hlavacek put her Aurora home up for sale a month ago, she wasn't the first "for sale" sign that went up on the block. Her next-door neighbor and good friend beat her to the market by a few weeks.
June 27, 2010
Moral bankruptcy?
Cash-strapped, jobless and denied a loan modification, Del Phillips faced the same straits as millions of homeowners who risk losing their homes to mortgage lenders.
September 19, 2008
THE LOCAL SCENE
Taming of the monster home
McMansions epitomized the excesses of the housing market, but don't think that just because the market is in the dumps, the desire for overbuilt homes has dried up.
August 22, 2008
THE LOCAL SCENE
Don't blow this chance to prep home
There is a silver lining out there for homeowners who, despite being eager to sell their homes, have opted to sit on the sidelines and wait out the current market's malaise.
September 5, 2008
THE LOCAL SCENE
Welcome to your dream home (some assembly required)
Unlike a lot of buyers of newly-constructed houses, Kaye and Peter Hathaway didn't want everything to be spotless and shiny when they took possession of their Island Lake home. In fact, they didn't want it to be finished.
September 12, 2008
THE LOCAL SCENE
An old pro's game plan for buyers
Ralph Smykal has never seen the nation's housing market as bad off as it is right now, and that's saying a lot for an octogenarian whose family-owned company has weathered recession, the Depression and two World Wars.
3:58 PM EST, March 3, 2010
North Mayfair community: These old houses named among ‘best’ in U.S.
North Mayfair is going to need a bigger sign.
August 1, 2008
THE LOCAL SCENE
Should you file a property tax assessment appeal?
It seems like a cruel joke to play on a homeowner in the current market. Despite the drop in property values, a letter arrives from the assessor's office detailing a proposed increase in a parcel's assessed valuation.
March 13, 2009
Sears Tower name change has few Chicago fans
Changing the name of Sears Tower to Willis Tower is a no-brainer, especially if you're Willis Group Holdings.
August 29, 2008
THE LOCAL SCENE
Next stop, twilight zone open houses
Most people who've bought a house have experienced the Sunday afternoon ritual of piling in the car and making the rounds of open houses.
August 8, 2008
THE LOCAL SCENE
Got the right stuff for loan? Then prove it
Check your credit report and start digging for documents. A handshake, broad smile and verbal income estimate no longer will yield a mortgage but lenders still are looking for more than a few good borrowers.
Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune
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