The Chicago 77

Fannie Mae has made an announcement regarding all loans held in their portfolio. The program is set to take place August 1st, 2010. It is called the Fannie Mae’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program or HAFA for short. HAFA is part of HAMP or Home Affordable Modification Program and provides financial incentives to servicers and [...]

June 1, 2010 As of today, Fannie Mae will now be requiring all loan applicants to run a second credit report right before closing on a real estate transaction. Not only will the credit report be required with the original loan application, at closing Fannie Mae will now require a second report to be generated. [...]

13 April 2010 The First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit has been extended from some. For those that are part of the Armed Forces, Us Foreign Services, and Intelligence Community that have served outside the United States for over 90-days have a one-year extension. With that said the extension is good for one calendar year. The [...]

Many people interested in purchasing in today’s real estate market are looking to cash on the “Deal of the Century.” Who can blame them when the national media is stating the property values have declined by 10% from last year to this year and still declining? Not only that, there is a record number of [...]

Starting April 5th, 2010 the government is going to start the Home Affordalbe Foreclosure Alternative program, or HAFA for short. HAFA was created in 2009 with a goal of working with home owners to make their mortgage payments more affordable to avoid home foreclosures. Highlights of the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative Program Include: Not allowing [...]

23 March 2010 The Republican party recommended yesterday that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be phased out. In fact House Representative Barney Frank was referring to Fannie and Freddie and was quoted as saying, “We made a mistake. Partially public and partially private hybrids are not workable.” However, Federal Reserve Chief, Ben Bernanke is holding [...]

22 March 2010 Mortgage analysts have estimated that mortgage investors and banks have held a total of 645,000 of foreclosed homes in their inventory for the month of January, 2010. This number up from 617,000 in December, 2009. It would appear that supply is rising again due to banks determining that many homeowners will not [...]

15 March 2010 Foreclosures in Illinois increased 22% in February, 2010. The high foreclosure rate can be attributed to the high unemployment rate and declining home prices. With the declining market many people are finding themselves underwater in their homes. Meaning . . . they owe more on their home than their home is worth. [...]

9 March 2010 James Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase Bank was recently named in an arrest warrant in the city of Atalanta, GA for an illegal tire dump. The City of Atalanta issued the arrest warrant on February 23, 2010 for the illegal dump. The city tax records show that Chase Bank is responsible [...]

1 March 2010 The two federally insured companies that purchase mortgage backed securities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have announced 2009 fourth quarter losses of approximately $15-Billion. The two companies are reportedly planning on asking the Federal Government for more bail out funds. While some might say… “let them go under,” think about this first. [...]

23 February 2010 ? After an abysmal year, 2009 proved to be the worst year in Chicago condo sales history. With that said, new construction condominiums will be hard to find in 2012. No new construction buildings have been proposed to the City now or for the future. According to The Chicago Tribune, “This year, [...]

While the national economy has been on everyone’s mind for a very long time now, recently I have been wondering about the health of the local Chicago economy. Specifically, I have been contemplating the trickle-down effect the new parking meter system has on local businesses. Last year Mayor Daley made the controversial decision to privatize [...]

Katie Anderson & Stacy Braack 16 February 2010 ? In today’s gloomy real estate market, things seem to only get gloomier for property owners. With an oversupply of rental inventory on the market, condo owners and developers are looking at creative measures to save time, money and their property. With that said, there are currently [...]