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The U.S. Treasury Department will begin selling about $10 billion a month of mortgage-backed securities as the government winds down emergency programs set up during the financial crisis.
The announcement of a fresh supply of high-quality debt coming to market surprised traders, but they said later it should be manageable. The Treasury has a $142-billion portfolio of MBS, acquired in 2008 and 2009, and estimates it will take about a year to dispose if it. Get the full story »
The weeks after the Super Bowl are considered the traditional start of the home-buying season, but home sales were a non-starter in the Chicago area last month.
February sales of existing homes in the Chicago area fell 8.8 percent from their level of a year ago, to 3,769 homes sold at a median price of $152,500. A year ago, in February 2010, the median price was $165,000. Get the full story »
Freddie Mac's offices in McLean, Va. (Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images)
A key Republican in the House of Representatives Thursday said he would try for the third time to eliminate mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac within five years.
“We have waited for years to do something. It is time to start doing something,” Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the fourth ranking House Republican, said in an interview with a small group of reporters in his office. Get the full story »
Mortgage rates posted a sharp decline, with the benchmark conforming 30-year fixed mortgage rate falling to 4.91 percent, according to Bankrate.com’s weekly national survey. Get the full story »
Forman Mills Clothing Factory Warehouse will open its first store in Chicago tomorrow in a former Goldblatt’s Department Store site at 1450 N. Cicero Ave.
The 55,000-square-foot store will sell marked-down designer clothes as well as authorized apparel from major league and collegiate sports teams. More than 200 jobs are expected to be created. Get the full story »
U.S. housing starts posted their biggest decline in 27 years in February while building permits dropped to their lowest level on record, suggesting the beleaguered real estate sector has yet to rebound from its deepest slump in modern history. Get the full story »
The "Priscilla Queen Of the Desert cupcake" at Magnolia Bakery in New York City earlier this month. (Jemal Countess/Getty)
Magnolia Bakery, the New York chain credited with starting the cupcake craze, plans to open its first Chicago store at the Block 37 shops in the Loop. The bakery signed a lease for 2,550 square feet on the first floor of the indoor shopping mall. The shop is slated to open in June. Get the full story »
Another stymied condo development in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood is going rental.
Lexington Park, which originally was developed as 297 condos in a 35-story tower and additional space in a connected seven-story loft building, will be converted to more than 300 apartments, according to ST Residential LLC, which took possession of the property at Cermak and Indiana last year. Get the full story »
Renters beware: Double-digit rent hikes may be coming soon amid rental vacancy rates that have dipped below the 10 percent mark, where they had been lodged for most of the past three years.
“Young people are starting to get rid of their roommates and move out of their parent’s basements,” said Peggy Alford, president of Rent.com, predicting the vacancy rate will hover at a mere 5 percent by 2012. With fewer units on the market, prices will explode. Get the full story »
U.S. real estate companies said on Monday they were trying to assess the damage that last week’s earthquake and tsunami may have inflicted on the hotels, warehouses and outlet centers they own in Japan.
The companies, including four real estate investment trusts (REITs), are expected to incur some property damage from the disaster. With a highly dense population in one of the world’s wealthiest countries, Japan is a favorite among U.S. real estate investors. Get the full story »
Bill and Giuliana Rancic in their Hinsdale home. (Photo for the Tribune by Nathan Kirkman)
Elite Street | By Bob Goldsborough | Reality TV star Bill Rancic, the Chicago entrepreneur, motivational speaker and real-estate developer who won the first season of Donald Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” has sold his five-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot mansion in Hinsdale in a private transaction for $4.6 million.
The sale easily is the most expensive one this year in Hinsdale. Get the full story »
Ken Griffin, the chief executive of Citadel in Chicago, has bought an oceanfront home at the Four Seasons’ Hualalai resort in Hawaii for just under $17 million. Get the full story »
PNC Bank, the Chicago area’s fourth-biggest bank, is stepping up its profile in downtown Chicago.
The Pittsburgh-based bank, which now occupies about 80,000 square feet at One North Franklin, has signed a new lease that will increase its presence at the Tishman Speyer property to 116,000-square-feet over the next two years, with a term extension until 2022. Get the full story »
Mortgage rates were mostly unchanged in the latest week, with the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages edging slightly upward, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of mortgage rates.
Rates had risen earlier this year, hitting their highest level since April last month. They had slumped most of last year as Treasurys had declined amid economic uncertainty. The rates generally track the yields, which move inversely to Treasury prices. Get the full story »
A foreclosed home up for sale in Elgin in 2009. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The number of homes in foreclosure plummeted in both Illinois and the U.S. in February, but despite the slowing flow, many analysts believe the foreclosure pipeline has not turned off yet.
In Illinois, 5,568 homeowners received notices that their mortgages had fallen into default and foreclosure proceedings had been initiated, while 1,471 properties were scheduled to go to auction and another 2,553 homes were repossessed by lenders, RealtyTrac said Thursday.
Altogether, the 9,592 notices related to a foreclosure last month showed a decline of 27.13 from January and 44.59 percent from February 2010. Get the full story »
