For years, renting was seen as the more cost-effective alternative to owning, and generally, the viewpoint made sense. Renting lacks the property taxes, upkeep and other fees that often come with owning a home, and the skyrocketing prices of

A new Senate bill introduced Wednesday hopes to add another factor in the underwriting process in the form of energy costs, according to a new report from Housing Wire’s Jon Prior. Introduced by Senators Michael Bennet (D-Col.) and Johnny

According to the National Association of Home Builders, builder confidence for single family new home construction rose four points in October, the largest single-month gain since the home buyer tax credit stimulated buyers in April of 2010. Builders’ confidence

Efficiency in running a business How to effectively run a business has been a major topic of debate for decades. As businesses have evolved, so has that debate. Some believe that in-person, face-to-face interaction is the best way to

According to the JiWire.com Mobile Audience Insights Report for the second quarter of 2011, interesting trends were revealed regarding consumption of promotions through mobile-specific channels, with one in five consumers preferring to receive promotional offers through their smartphone. E-mail

According to the JiWire.com Mobile Audience Insights Report for the second quarter of 2011, a substantial shift has occurred in what gadgets Americans own. In the second quarter, most Americans owned a laptop, more than half owned a smartphone

A quick rundown of stats from our real estate news for the week of Oct. 17 – Oct. 21, by the numbers: 13.3 – the percentage that home sales in the nine-county Chicagoland area increased in September from last year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the government body that oversees federal lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has ordered the two financial bodies to phase out their network of foreclosure attorneys in the wake of the robo-signing foreclosure

Who knew something so popular could receive such scorn? Since mid-September, when the mortgage interest tax deduction (MID) was floated as a possible casualty of the Congressional “Super Committee” charged with lowering the federal deficit, the famous deduction has

After increasing almost 8 percent in August, existing-home sales fell back to earth in September, decreasing 3 percent from August but retaining strong year-over-year gains, according to new data released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) today. Total sales

Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft released the October 2011 Economic Outlook yesterday, reporting a decrease in homeownership but increase in rental demand. On one hand, Nothaft reported an increase of 1.4 million households that have moved to rental

The Federal Reserve approved a new policy on Monday that aims to clarify how larger financial institutions would handle another systemic shock to the banking sector, though some critics still say the new policy falls short. The plan, which

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced new data for construction earlier today, the most notable being that housing starts rose 15 percent from August to September. In total, privately-owned housing starts were

The past few months, media outlets have been awash with proposed remedies for falling home prices, but the latest solution comes from an unlikely source: short sales, home sales of distressed homes before they are repossessed and sold by

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