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Freddie Mac, the second-largest provider of funding for U.S. home mortgages, will raise some loan fees, a sign it sees greater risks even for borrowers making regular payments.
The company, struggling to recover from the worst housing slump since the 1930s, will raise some so-called “delivery fees” in March to cover increased risks on loans for large portions of a property’s value, according to a bulletin dated Monday on its Web site. Get the full story »
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Former WFLD-Ch. 32 news anchor David Novarro has cut his asking price for his 15-room, 4,224-square-foot house in Naperville to $699,999, weeks after listing it for $710,000.
In an interview, Novarro, who left “FOX-32″ in July after his contract was not renewed, said he is headed to New York City to work as a news anchor for a network-owned station that for contractual reasons he is not yet allowed to identify. Get the full story »
Existing-home sales in the Chicago area sunk 35.9 percent in October from a year ago, and median home prices continue to lose ground, according to data released Tuesday. Get the full story »
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | William Blair & Co. Chairman Edgar D. “Ned” Jannotta on Friday sold his 11-room, lakefront mansion in Winnetka for $6.5 million after once asking $10.75 million for it.
Jannotta, 79, has been with the closely held investment bank for more than 50 years. He became chairman in 2001 after previously serving in a variety of positions, including as managing partner. Get the full story »
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Chicago Cubs outfielder Kosuke Fukudome and his wife have paid $1.44 million to buy a three-bedroom Streeterville condo. Get the full story »
Le Grand Reve mansion in Winnetka. (Tribune File/Chis Walker)
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | A 26-room, 27,000-square-foot mansion in Winnetka whose owners once tried to sell it for $32 million saw its asking price cut by $5 million on Thursday, to $23 million.
Known as Le Grand Reve, the six-bedroom, chateau-style mansion, which commercial real estate executive Sherwin Jarol and his wife own, sits on 2.04 acres. Get the full story »
Hoping to cut down on fraud and scams tied to the mortgage crisis, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is tightening rules for companies and attorneys who perform loan modification and foreclosure rescue services. Get the full story »
The number of Chicago-area homeowners who received permanent mortgage modifications rose last month, topping 25,000, but the pace at which consumers are being added to that group has slowed dramatically.
The government’s monthly accounting of its Home Affordable Modification Program showed that in the Chicago area, the 25,001 mortgages that received permanently lower payment terms was a 3.1 percent increase from September. On a percentage basis, that’s the smallest monthly gain of the year, and a dramatic drop from the high double-digit gains recorded earlier this year. Get the full story »
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | WMAQ-Ch. 5 news anchor and reporter Jeff Goldblatt and his wife have listed their four-bedroom house in Deerfield for $749,000.
Goldblatt, 41, joined NBC-5 in September after concluding a two-year run at WFLD-Ch. 32 as a news anchor. He was a Fox News correspondent for nearly a decade before that. Get the full story »
Applications for mortgages rose last week for the third straight week.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday overall applications increased 5.8 percent from a week earlier, driven by gains in purchase and refinance applications. Get the full story »
The good news is that more than half of Illinois counties saw gains in median home sale prices during the third quarter. The bad news is that most of the Chicago area played no part in that good news.
In Cook County, the median selling price fell 14.3 percent during the three months that ended in September, a combination of a 16.3 percent price decline in condos and a 7.9 percent drop in single-family home prices, according to data released Wednesday by the Illinois Association of Realtors. Other counties that experienced price declines were Kane, where the median price fell 13.3 percent; Kendall, down 8.3 percent; and McHenry, down 3.7 percent. Get the full story »
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | Former Chicago Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly on Tuesday cut the asking price of his five-bedroom, 5,400-square-foot house just west of Wrigley Field from $2.4 million to $2.1 million. Lilly, 34, was traded by the Cubs to the Los Angeles Dodgers in late July. Get the full story »
A home with price reduction on the market in October. (Reuters)
The number of Chicago-area homes with negative equity in the Chicago area continued to rise in the year’s third quarter, a troubling sign for a local housing market struggling to recover.
Some 32.9 percent of all local single-family detached homes with mortgages were underwater in September, meaning the homeowners owed more on the loans than the properties are worth, according to new data from realty Web site Zillow.com. That compares with 30.9 percent in June and 27.2 percent in September 2009. The report does not include data on condominiums. Get the full story »
The White House unveiled a new Home Energy Score federal program Tuesday that will allow people to determine how energy-efficient their homes are.
It was one of several energy initiatives that Vice President Joe Biden announced at a White House event Tuesday. Get the full story »
The number of people who signed contracts to buy homes fell in September after two months of gains, a possible fallout from foreclosure moratoriums that have disrupted activity in the housing market.
The National Association of Realtors said Friday that its index of sales agreements for previously occupied homes dropped 1.8 percent in September, to 80.9. Contract signings fell in every region except the West. Get the full story »
