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Another read on home price came out Thursday, and it offers a glimmer of hope about Chicago-area home prices.
The good news? In February, local home values on single-family homes were relatively flat, down only 0.4 percent from a year earlier, according to data provider CoreLogic. Get the full story »
A digital mockup of Adzookie's painting plan. (Adzooki)
Startup advertising firm Adzookie has latched on to a high-profile way to publicize itself: by turning homes into massive billboards. In exchange, Adzookie says it will pay the house owner’s mortgage every month for as long as the home stays painted.
Adzookie launched the offer on its website Tuesday — and by late afternoon, the company had already received more than 1,000 applications, according to Adzookie CEO Romeo Mendoza. One even came from a church. Get the full story »
Former Bears offensive tackle John Tait, left, in 2006. (Tribune file)
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Former Chicago Bears offensive tackle John Tait has listed his 15-room stucco French Manor-style mansion in Mettawa for $1.499 million. Tait, 36, played with the Bears from 2004 until 2008. He retired in February 2009.
Tait paid $1.645 million in 2004 for the four-bedroom, 5,465-square-foot home in Mettawa. Built in 2003, the house has four full baths, two half baths, three fireplaces, 10-foot ceilings, quarter-sawn hardwood floors, millwork and a finished lower level with a second kitchen. The house sits on a 1.62-acre parcel adjoining a conservancy. Get the full story »
During the housing boom, anyone who could fog a mirror could get a mortgage. Today, only highly qualified borrowers can get financing — let alone the best rates. The latest data from the Federal Reserve shows that nearly a quarter of people who apply for loans are turned down.
“Good borrowers with one or two blemishes on their credit are being denied credit,“ said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. Get the full story »
An ambitious plan to prevent “Fail Whales,” the cartoon icon that greets frustrated Twitter users during network outages, turned into a fail whale of its own.
A new, custom-built facility in Utah to house computers that power the popular messaging service by the end of 2010 has been plagued with everything from leaky roofs to insufficient power capacity, people familiar with the plans told Reuters. Get the full story »
Top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were paid handsomely in the last two years, while the government agency in charge of regulating the bailed-out mortgage backers was ill-equipped to do anything about it, according to a federal review. Get the full story »
Macy's store at Water Tower Place (Alex Garcia/Tribune file)
Macy’s is undertaking a multimillion-dollar renovation of its Water Tower Place store in a move to bring new life to the Magnificent Mile outpost.
The department store chain is concentrating its efforts on the first three floors, where it generates most of its business. Cosmetics, women’s accessories, shoes and intimate apparel account for 36 percent of total revenue at Macy’s Inc. nationwide, according to the company’s annual report filed this week.
The last time the eight-level, 227,000-square-foot store had a makeover was in 1996 when it was a Marshall Field’s. Get the full story »
U.S. mortgage broker groups failed in an 11th-hour push to block a Federal Reserve overhaul that will limit a type of compensation that became controversial during the housing boom. Get the full story »
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, right, at a conference on global capital markets competitivene in Washington, D.C (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
The head of JPMorgan Chase said Wednesday that banks would not consider writing down mortgages for homeowners who can’t make payments, an idea at the center of talks aimed at fixing the mortgage mess.
“Principal writedown for people who couldn’t pay their mortgages? Yeah, that’s off the table,“ JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said when asked about the idea after an appearance before a U.S. Chamber of Commerce forum in Washington. Get the full story »
Been dreaming of a vacation home? Somewhere warm to get away? Or maybe a cabin in the woods? Prices are right if you can afford it. Get the full story »
Applications for U.S. home mortgages tumbled last week as higher interest rates sapped demand for loan refinancing, an industry group said on Wednesday. Get the full story »
U.S. bank regulators on Tuesday unveiled a proposal to overhaul the market for securities backed by mortgages and other assets, a piece of the financial system battered by the recession and financial crisis. Get the full story »
A home for sale in Elgin, Aug. 24, 2010. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
January home prices fell for the sixth month in a row, approaching lows reached in the depths of the recession in 2009.
The Chicago area fared worse than the national average, with the local index reaching its lowest level since 2001. The index for Chicago-area single-family home prices fell 7.5 percent from the year-ago period, and dropped 1.8 percent in January from December. Get the full story »
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Americans are more likely to pay their credit card bills than their mortgages, according to a study from TransUnion LLC. The trend, which began during the Great Recession, reflects the lingering affects of the housing crisis.
Many experts expected the payment behavior to revert by now to the old dynamic of consumers paying their mortgages first, but that has yet to happen, the Chicago-based credit score agency said. Get the full story »
