Michael Hobbs's (michaelhobbs) Blog

    If you think the Chicago real estate market is completely on its way back, here is a little extra dose of reality that may alter that line of thinking.  Last year in the Chicagoland area, there were over 35,000 foreclosures that sold at auction.  In Illinois, once a property goes to auction, ...

  Small rental properties have risen in value along with your rent.  It’s no secret that the buyer has the upper hand in the current residential market.  According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, specifically in the 2-4 unit property category, to be the highest it’s been since 2009 and 10% ...

According to reports on Mortgage News Daily, Fannie Mae is reporting net income of $1.8 billion in the third quarter of 2012 from $5.70 billion, which is an improvement from the third quarter of 2011 when the company reported a net loss of $5.1 billion on $5.78 billion in revenue. For the first t...

  According to a recent study by Reis Inc. (REIS), office vacancy rates are down to their lowest level since 2009. The vacancy rate in the third quarter fell by 0.1 % to 17.2 percent from the second quarter and in the last year, the vacancy rate declined by 0.30 %. Compared to 2009 the rate has d...

  A news release on October 10th by the National Association of Realtors blamed real estate appraisals and tight mortgage credit for holding back home sales. In the news release, it was noted that while most appraisers were competent and provided valuations compliant with guidelines by Uniform St...

  According to Reis Inc., after a short-lived economic recovery, demand for retail space is falling again. As noted by a senior economist at Reis, consumer spending had remained inconsistent due to the struggling labor market and economy. With the advent of online shopping, malls have continued t...

  In the last week there has been a lot of chatter in major news outlets about a new trend towards micro units, which has probably been in response to a scheduled vote that did not happen in San Francisco. The vote which was supposed to happen on September 25th was on proposed legislation to chan...

  Earlier in the last decade, the real estate industry started on the path to understanding the importance which many consumers put on ‘green’ building and real estate. Of course, we all know how the past decade went.  The surge in the housing market resulted in a bubble and, like all bubbles, it...

  If you are a loan officer, it is very, very likely that you are swamped.  Based on conversations with several mortgage loan officers at Wells Fargo, Guaranteed Rate and Prospect Mortgage, “it is like trying to drink from a fire hose, there’s so much mortgage activity.”  Digging deeper, it is di...

  Residential mortgage refinances hit their highest level since 2009 as mortgage interest rates drifted to their lowest levels in history.  The data was provided from the weekly survey by Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) that covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgages. Mort...