The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago made a big splash last week when it listed one of the most expensive slices of real estate in the city’s history – an 89th-floor, 14,260 square-foot, $32-million penthouse. Trump Tower, though,

One does not have to be a rocket scientist at NASA to see that things are pretty good in Houston right now. Home sales in April were positive for the 11th straight month, reaching their highest level since August

Everything was sunny and fine for the U.S. construction industry in April, which continued its 2012 gains with strong showings for the month in the Census Bureau’s latest report. Altogether, construction spending rose 0.3 percent from March to April

Walmart is many things to many people – discount chain, multinational corporation, grocery store, and, of course, arbiter of pollution, low-wage jobs and traffic. But a new study from a duo of economists has put a new, interesting perspective

A new survey by Realtor.com has found that prospective homebuyers are more interested in foreclosures than ever before – and in a major way. Since October 2009, homebuyer interest in foreclosures has risen by an incredible 159 percent, which

Costco, the popular warehouse club chain, is a great place for food, office supplies, clothing and…mortgages? Yes indeed – Costco has partnered with First Choice Bank and 10 other lenders to offer home purchasing and refinancing products through its

New pending home sales data from the National Association of Realtors is reporting a 14.4 percent increase from April 2011. The data, which is gleaned from the Pending Home Sales Index, was down monthly by 5.5 percent after three

The First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS), a 55-year-old MLS that serves more than 30,000 agents throughout Georgia, was in the news last week when Lane Bailey, a Realtor in the state, discovered that when uploading photos to FMLS, agents

CoreLogic filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Redfin late last week, alleging that a new home price tool the online brokerage released in March violates an existing patent. A home price estimator, Redfin’s Home Price Tool was designed to give prospective

Home values nationwide have began to stabilize in S&P’s latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, and the markets in Texas are leading the charge to recovery. From February to March, national prices were unchanged, and though S&P does not track

Agents looking to take their selling skills to another dimension will have one more tool in their arsenal. Miami-based software development company Evolution Ventures has recently launched their Sage iPad and web-based application for Realtors in the Chicago

It’s no mystery that housing has been on a bumpy path since 2007, but the past month, a wide range of data has come out all but endorsing a new housing recovery. From home sales, to interest rates, to

Internet syndication has changed the real estate industry as we know it, but that doesn’t mean that all brokerages want to use it. Edina Realty, the Twin Cities-based brokerage that famously pulled its listings from Trulia, was in the

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced earlier this week its purchase of 437 N Rush, a two-story building that borders the west side of the association’s Chicago headquarters off Michigan Avenue. NAR will now own the entire block

Appraisals – can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em. A topic we have covered numerous times, appraisals have been a consistent source of headaches for agents in the post-boom market, with contract failures a common result of the

The National Association of Realtors announced this week the merger of its Realtors Federal Credit Union (FCU) with the Northwest Federal Credit Union. The end result of a nine-month inquiry by Bob Goldberg, the senior vice president for sales, marketing,