The average U.S. house is now worth more than it was at the peak in 2007, a high mark on the real estate recovery.
According to the latest market information, the median home value in the U.S. is $198,000, 1 percent more than the year before and an increase over the peak price of $196,600 set in April 2007.
“We aren’t in a bubble and won’t be entering one anytime soon,” Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell said in the report...
A shortage of for sale housing has driven down home sales in April, according to the latest numbers from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Total existing home sales fell 2.3 percent from March, though sales are still up over last April by 1.6 percent.
Housing inventory is growing, it was up 7.2 percent to 1.93 million existing homes for sale, but it continues to fall short of demand. Median days on the market hit a new low at 29 days...
Six new skyscrapers are set to change the face of Chicago forever.
Rising over 800 feet, these building will be new and defining edifices in the skyline. Three of them are already under construction, the Vista Tower, One Bennett Park and One Grant Park. Three more, Wolf Point South, 1000M and 110 N. Wacker are already approved by the city.
Read more at Curbed Chicago here ...
The newest skyscraper that will change the city's skyline has officially obtained all its permits.
The Vista Tower, a Studio Gang-designed super-tall that will eventually rise 95 stories to become the city's third largest building received their final construction permit and is moving along now at full speed.
The 1,186-foot tower will eventually feature 406 luxury condos, a 192-room hotel and retail space. It is expected to cost more than $1 billion to build...
Nationwide home prices in metro areas increased for the third consecutive quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The median price for existing single family homes rose 6.9 percent, an increase from $217,200 to $232,100 since the first quarter of last year. It's also the fastest pace of growth since the fourth quarter of 2015.
Total existing home sales were 5.72 million in the first quarter, also an increase from the previous year, up 1.4 percent...
For the last several years home buyers have enjoyed historically low interest rates thanks to Federal Reserve policy that has kept them low as a form of economic stimulus, but that could be about to change.
According to the Congressional Budget Office's 2017 Budget and Economic Outlook, the interest rate the Fed charges to banks could be increased nine times by 2020 with the first rate hike set for this June...
Investment property can be very appealing - besides diversifying a portfolio it can also serve as a durable stream of income and a savings vehicle over a lifetime. But there's a lot involved and it's definitely not a passive investment...
Buyers, sellers, everyone is feeling good about the real estate market.
The Home Purchase Sentiment Index rose by 2.2 percent in April to 86.7 percent, a three point increase from the previous year.
Four of the six measures of the index saw improvement; consumers believe it's a good time to buy, sellers believe it's a good time to sell, home prices are up and incomes are up.
Read more at Chicago Agent Magazine here .
While certain city neighborhoods, particularly those along the Blue Line, have seen a lot of media attention for home price appreciation, some suburbs are posting big gains this year.
Oak Park and Cicero saw prices climb 9.2 percent year over year while Evanston and Skokie grew 6.9. Park Ridge, Des Plaines and Chicago Heights/Park Forest saw the highest volume, with sales passing more than 2,200.
Read more and check out a nifty chart at Chicago Agent Magazine here .
While most homes in Chicago have not recovered their pre-recession value, several neighborhoods have achieved that and more.
In West Town, Logan Square, Lincoln Square, Uptown and Lakeview, prices have risen to levels not seen at any other time in nearly two decades, according to a study from DePaul University.
The big driver of these increase, according to the researches, is gentrification...
With the spring selling season well underway the question that often comes up is when's the best time of the year to go home-shopping?
Zillow recently crunched the numbers and price data from last year and compared the total number of listings, the percentage of homes selling above list price and listings with price reductions...
With the spring selling season well underway the question that often comes up is when's the best time of the year to go home-shopping?
Zillow recently crunched the numbers and price data from last year and compared the total number of listings, the percentage of homes selling above list price and listings with price reductions...
While there's been recent good news for sellers, that home values are soaring in year-over-year numbers, the good news for buyers is that home values in most of Chicago and across the country remain below their peaks set in 2006.
In Chicago, only 7.6 percent of homes have reached their pre-recession peak. The median home price in the city was $225,051, well below the pre-recession peak of $274,092...
Single family homes in Humboldt Park and Garfield Park have appreciated the most year-over-year, according to the latest data from the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul.
Those two neighborhoods posted increases of 21.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016. The organization's executive director, Geoff Smith, told Chicago Tonight that the increase was indicating a pattern of investment, development and gentrification...
According to the latest data, the first quarter of 2017 has been the best time to sell a home since 2007.
Homeowners who sold in the first three months of the year saw the highest average gains since the third quarter of 2007, per a report from ATTOM Data Solutions. Sellers saw an average gain nationwide of $44,000, a 24 percent return on their original investment...
A new development partnership between the city of Chicago and Friedman Properties could replace an aging fire station with a new highrise.
The partnership would result in the demolition of the existing firehouse at 55 W. Illinois in River North and replace it with a new station, costing $20.2 million and a mixed use tower with up to 614,000 square feet of office space.
Read more at Curbed Chicago here ...
Developers are proposing a new, 20-story tower for the West Loop's red hot Fulton Market District.
MCZ Development has proposed a 236-unit apartment building for 166 N. Aberdeen, the corner of Aberdeen and May, former site of Fabbri Sausage. The building, designed by Chicago-based Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) would be constructed of brick masonry at the base to blend into the site and transition to glass and clay-colored metal panels above...
Fannie Mae has announced several new policies and a program that could help borrowers who have student loan debt.
First, they'll be offering a student loan cash-out refinance which will give homeowners the option to pay off high-interest-rate student lows as part of a re-finance...
Single-family home prices in four of Chicago's neighborhoods have reached new highs, according to data from the DePaul Institute of Housing Studies.
The West Town/New West Side neighborhoods have seen prices rise almost 159 percent and home prices in Logan Square/Avondale have risen almost 156 percent. That's compared with the citywide average that shows homes still 23.4 percent under their peaks reached in 2007...
Traditional wisdom has argued that single family homes always appreciate faster than condos, but new research indicates that gap may be closing.
Trulia surveyed the 100 largest metro areas between February of 2012 and 2017 and indicated that appreciation of condos nation-wide was faster than that of single family homes. Condo prices rose 38.4 percent over that period while houses appreciated 27.9 percent.
Chicago, however, bucked the national trend: condo values rose 23.3
