Articles About Residential

Chicago existing home sales soared by 33 percent in December, although the statistics were flat for the year, according to research by the Illinois Association of Realtors. The average home sale price fell approximately 18.3 percent to $196,000 when compared with 2008.  During 2009, a total of 69,290 Chicago-area homes were sold, a 0.2 percent […]

Capital is flowing out of the Middle East and being invested in real estate across the globe, according to Nicholas Maclean, Managing Director, CB Richard Ellis, Middle East. “The outflow of capital from the Middle East to be invested into real estate properties worldwide has been higher than the influx of global capital into real […]

London has overtaken Washington, D.C., as the preferred city for commercial real estate investment,  primarily because investors believe that prices have bottomed out and the time to get into that market is now. The British capital has overtaken the previous favorites of Washington, D.C., and New York, according to a survey conducted by the Association […]

Apartment vacancies in the United States hit a 30-year high during the fourth quarter of 2009 as many would-be renters moved in with family or roommates to save money.  According to Reis, Inc., a New York research firm that tracks vacancies and rents in 79 markets across the country, the apartment vacancy rate was eight […]

Apparently, the American housing market is not the only one experiencing difficulties.  In the United Kingdom, Lloyds Banking Group Plc has sold its unprofitable chain of 218 Halifax Estate Agencies, Ltd., a large British residential real estate brokerage firm, to LSL Property Services Plc for just £1 – about $1.60. According to Lloyds, the sale […]

The Chicago Spire may restart construction, thanks to a group of union pension funds that want to put their members back to work and are in discussions to lend Irish developer Shelbourne Development Group $170 million to complete what would become the nation’s tallest building. The Spire’s construction came to a halt when the global […]

Home prices nationally are on the rise again, according to a new report issued by the Standard &Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. The average sale price rose 3.1 percent during the third quarter of 2009, the same percent increase reported during the second quarter.  On the downside, that statistic is still nine percent lower than the […]

Chicago’s high-profile skyscraper, the 92-story Trump International Tower & Hotel,  is now the world’s sixth tallest building – a step up from its previous status as the seventh.  The reason?  The Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the group that sets height standards  for buildings, changed its measurement criteria. The discarded standard required […]

The commercial bond market may be opening up slightly as Bank of America (BofA) prepares to sell $460 million worth of bonds collateralized by properties owned by Fortress Investment Group. The bonds that BofA is arranging are ineligible for TALF, another positive sign that the commercial mortgage market might finally be showing signs of improvement. […]

Homeowners facing foreclosure will soon be able to rent their homes from the government controlled Fannie Mae. Called Deed to LeaseTM,  the program lets homeowners transfer ownership of their home to Fannie Mae. They then sign a one-year lease, with the option of month-to-month extensions available.  Fannie Mae will try to sell the homes during […]