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Eleven of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks showed signs of a stabilizing or improving economy during July and August, according to the Fed’s latest Beige Book report.  The Beige Book’s anecdotal evidence found that the nation’s worst recession in 70 years is coming to an end.  The Fed expects the economy to grow by […]

Despite positive news about rising home sales, the number of Americans with under water mortgages might be as worrying as anything else happening in the economy. When people owe more on their mortgages than their home is worth, it limits their ability to pursue new opportunities because they cannot afford to sell.  In Chicago, First […]

Paul Krugman – winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Princeton University professor and New York Times columnist – is taking advantage of falling home prices in a difficult market.  Krugman and his wife, economist Robin Wells, recently paid $1.7 million for a three-bedroom co-op apartment in a pre-war building on Manhattan’s upscale Riverside Drive.  […]

Much has been made in the world’s press about India’s economy buoyed by its IT sector. And a lot of it is justified.  The nation’s IT sector managed to grow some 20 percent in 2008, according to India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies, and IT firms have already extended 100,000 job offers for […]

The wealth of the world’s high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) declined by nearly one fifth last year to $33 trillion, according to the 2009 World Wealth Report from Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.  A HNWI has at least $1 million of assets besides a primary residence, its contents and collectible items.  In 2008, the number of HNWIs fell […]

Federal Reserve chairman and Great Depression scholar Ben Bernanke will stay in his job for another four years if President Barack Obama gets his way.  There likely will be some contentious moments during the reconfirmation hearings as Senators grill him about bailing out Wall Street institutions deemed too big to fail.  He is expected to […]

Downtown Chicago apartment buildings – especially Class A properties – are seeing a resurgence in occupancy and rental rates as residents apprehensive about the condominium market choose to rent rather than buy.  The average effective rent of downtown apartment buildings climbed to $2.17 PSF in the second quarter, a 2.4 percent increase over the first […]

The Alter NOW blog is pleased to announce that we are among the select few to be included in the real estate section on Alltop, an internationally renowned website that collects the “headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic. Alltop, which envisions itself as the magazine rack […]

We are excited to announce that Michael Alter, president of The Alter Group, is part of an investment team that has purchased The New Republic (TNR).  TNR is one of the nation’s oldest political and cultural magazines.  The Obama administration has chosen it as one of the magazines placed on Air Force One, and Chief […]

When times are really tough, people within an organization look to leadership for direction.  This is the opinion of Gail Golden, Ph.D. MBA, Principal at Gail Golden Consulting in Chicago and previously a professor at the University of Western Ontario.  Dr. Golden believes that there are two kinds of change:  change that I initiate and […]