The Chicago 77

It’s good to hear that the government wheels are turning & finally churning out legislation to help those that they were elected to serve. On Sunday, April 5th, the Illinois State Senate passed and Governor Pat Quinn signed into law Senate Bill 2513.

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding and many misconceptions around what mortgage insurance (MI for short) actually does. Mortgage insurance is typically required on mortgage loans where the amount borrowed is 80% or more of the appraised value. The other distinguishing characteristic of mortgage insurance is it can be expensive.

The state of the current real estate market has made short sales more prevalent than ever before. When I started selling real estate five years ago, I rarely encountered a short sale. This past Sunday while out with buyers, two of the seven homes we previewed were short sales. Having just finalized a short sale […]

Numbers can be spun in any way that works for you. The foreclosure numbers that Cook County Circuit Court released on Jan. 13, 2009 are a case in point. Dorothy Brown, Cook County Clerk, chose this headline, “Cook County Mortgage Foreclosures Spike to 338%: A Ten-Year High.” And, of course, that is correct. In 1999 […]

Commercial real estate is going to have a challenging 2009. High vacancy rates, lower rents, and tight credit are all a recipe for a very difficult time for commercial landlords. This is evident in nearly any retail street in Chicago with more and more soaped up windows.