Getting Real

WSJ: Buying A Home Trumps Renting In Chicago

I know I’ve posted on this before but once again an analysis has come out that claims that buying a home trumps renting one in Chicago. A couple of weeks ago the Wall Street Journal wrote an article on the renting vs buying dynamic in 28 metropolitan areas and in 13 of those markets, Chicago... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
December 15, 2011 at 6:04 am

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Will Rents Continue To Climb In Chicago?

Crain’s ran a story last week on the rental market in downtown Chicago, highlighting that rents and occupancies dropped off in the third quarter. But when you look at the long term trend you can see that as the housing bubble burst and people found it more difficult and less appealing to buy rents actually... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
November 28, 2011 at 9:24 am

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If You Can't Sell Your Home Should You Rent It Out?

The Chicago Tribune ran a story on Friday about reluctant landlords who decide to rent out homes that they can’t sell (There’s actually no such thing as a home you can’t sell. You can always sell it but you may not like the price you get.) and it’s worth reading by anyone facing this decision... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
October 16, 2011 at 7:23 am

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Should Your Condo Association Be Limiting Rentals?

As many would-be sellers face losing all the equity in their home and maybe even having to write a check at closing they often turn to renting their home out as a way to cover a portion of their expenses so they can move to a new home. The only problem is that when that... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
September 22, 2011 at 9:15 pm

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State Of The Chicago Rental Market

With so many people finding themselves without down payments for new homes and others finding themselves stuck in their existing homes it should come as no surprise that Chicago’s rental market is hot right now. Crain’s ran a story a couple of days ago on the resurgance of Chicago’s rental market. In this article they... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
June 29, 2011 at 12:27 pm

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Chicago Apartment Occupancy And Rents On The Rise

Now that my taxes are done I can catch up on some posting I’ve been meaning to do. Keith Jurow recently published a report on Minyanville.com about the Las Vegas housing market (a report on Chicago comes out in about 1 month). Although Chicago is not Las Vegas there were some interesting data points (for... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
April 18, 2011 at 7:36 am

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The Case Against Homeownership

You would think that Time Magazine had insulted Vicki Cox Golder’s (the president of the National Association of Realtors) mother the way she reacted to their recent cover story about rethinking homeownership. That link only goes to an abridged version of the print story (I only read the abridged version) but the gist appears to... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
September 8, 2010 at 8:48 pm

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Chicago Real Estate: It's a Renter's Market?

Today’s post on the Chicago rental market was submitted by Rick Marks from Oodle. With unemployment levels soaring and the great recession in full swing, more and more would-be Windy City home buyers are turning to the Chicago apartment rental market for their housing needs. But just what does this mean to the average Midwesterner... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
September 2, 2010 at 10:49 pm

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To Rent Or To Sell Your Home - That Is The Question

The Chicago Tribune ran an article yesterday on Renting What You Can’t Sell – or becoming an unintentional landlord. The article seemed fairly well balanced, despite quoting several realtors that you always have to wonder about having their own agenda in such matters. I get asked this question a lot – “should we just rent... Read more »

By Gary Lucido,
May 17, 2010 at 10:10 am

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