Filed under: Real estate

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Driver Bobby Rahal buys Lincoln Park mansion

ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Retired professional race car driver Bobby Rahal, who won the 1986 Indianapolis 500, moved from Chicago to Columbus, Ohio, in 1981, but the Glen Ellyn native never forgot his roots.

A part-time Chicago resident from 2005 until 2008, Rahal, 57, now is set to make Chicago his exclusive home. He recently paid $3.295 million for a 12-room, 6,600-square-foot Lincoln Park mansion and also has listed his longtime six-bedroom, 13,192-square-foot mansion on 8 acres in New Albany, Ohio, for $4.75 million. Get the full story »

Ventas wraps $186M deal for senior housing assets

Real estate investment trust Ventas Inc. said Monday it has completed a $186 million buyout of 58 senior housing communities from affiliates of Sunrise Senior Living Inc.

Google buys huge building for $1.8 billion

Google has signed a deal to buy a huge Manhattan building, where it is a tenant, for $1.8 billion in one of the largest sales of a single building this year, according to a person close to the transaction. Get the full story »

Mortgage rates rise for 3rd consecutive week

After falling to jaw-dropping lows, home mortgage rates rose this week for the third week in a row, according to a new report today.

The rates on 30-year, fixed rate home loans rose to an average 4.46 percent with 0.8 point this week, up from 4.40 percent a week ago, according to the weekly survey by mortgage giant Freddie Mac. The increase comes after the 30-year, fixed-rate loan fell to a record low of 4.17 percent in early November. Get the full story »

Ill. foreclosure prices down as demand plummets

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip/file)

The number of foreclosed homes sold in Illinois during the third quarter fell sharply from the previous three months, but buyers who did enter the market were able to buy properties at prices more than 40 percent below the traditional market.

RealtyTrac reported Thursday that 6,844 foreclosed homes were sold in Illinois during the three months ended Sept. 30, a 24.34 percent from the second quarter. Still, sales of foreclosures represented almost 24 percent of all transactions.

The average foreclosed home selling price was $142,214 during the quarter, a 41.34 percent discount from the non-foreclosure average market price. Get the full story »

U.S. sees big costs for banks to fix foreclosures

U.S. banks will have to make “significant investments” to clean up foreclosure practices and some lenders potentially face strong pressure from investors to buy back faulty mortgages, a top Federal Reserve official said Wednesday. Get the full story »

Fed official: Mortgage system may need revamping

The mortgage servicing industry will need to make “substantial” investments to improve the foreclosures process, Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo said Wednesday. “Fixing the problems in the mortgage servicing industry may also require thinking about some fundamental structural changes to the current mortgage system,” Tarullo said in prepared remarks to Congress. Get the full story »

Mortgage demand drops as rates climb

Applications for U.S. home mortgages dropped last week as interest rates rose to the highest level since mid-August, driving down applications for refinancing, an industry group said on Wednesday. Get the full story »

U.S. home prices fall faster than expected in Sept.

Prices of single-family homes in September fell more than twice as fast as expected from the prior month, while prices compared to a year earlier rose more slowly than forecast, according a widely watched index of U.S. home prices released on Tuesday. Get the full story »

Study reports a fall in mortgage-related jobs

Mortgage-related jobs slid in the third quarter, with the biggest net losses occurring in Maryland, Illinois and Oregon, according to an index published by MortgageDaily.com.

With 3,216 layoffs and 2,286 hires, the net loss was 930 jobs. For the first three quarters of the year, there has been a net gain of 524 jobs.

This flattening comes after a modest rebound last year, following two years of dramatic job losses. In 2005, more than half a million people worked in mortgage lending, and less than half are left now, MortgageDaily.com reports. Get the full story »

Apple buys HP land to accommodate growth

Apple is expanding the size of its Cupertino, California, home base, acquiring nearby facilities from computer pioneer and competitor Hewlett Packard Co. Get the full story »

30-year mortgage rates edge up again

Rates on fixed mortgages edged up this week, inching further away from the lowest level in decades.

Freddie Mac said Wednesday the average rate for 30-year fixed loans rose to 4.40 percent from 4.39 percent last week. Two weeks ago, the rate hit 4.17 percent, the lowest on records dating to 1971. Get the full story »

Braun lists Hyde Park town home for $1.9M

ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Chicago mayoral candidate and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun has her five-bedroom, Prairie-style town home in Hyde Park on the market for $1.9 million.

The first African-American female to serve in the U.S. Senate, Braun, 63, announced on Saturday that she is running for mayor. Get the full story »

Freddie Mac to raise some mortgage fees

Freddie Mac, the second-largest provider of funding for U.S. home mortgages, will raise some loan fees, a sign it sees greater risks even for borrowers making regular payments.

The company, struggling to recover from the worst housing slump since the 1930s, will raise some so-called “delivery fees” in March to cover increased risks on loans for large portions of a property’s value, according to a bulletin dated Monday on its Web site. Get the full story »

Ex-Ch. 32 anchor cuts price on Naperville home

ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Former WFLD-Ch. 32 news anchor David Novarro has cut his asking price for his 15-room, 4,224-square-foot house in Naperville to $699,999, weeks after listing it for $710,000.

In an interview, Novarro, who left “FOX-32″ in July after his contract was not renewed, said he is headed to New York City to work as a news anchor for a network-owned station that for contractual reasons he is not yet allowed to identify. Get the full story »