Photo source: City of Austin

With the first-time homebuyer’s tax credit set to expire in April and home prices at generational lows, people–especially young people–are able to buy their first homes a lot sooner than many expected.

Vacancy rates are up, as are the number of perks landlords willing to dole out. Consider asking for free parking.

Some gloomy numbers loomed over the real estate market this week when national home sales and prices dropped, while mortgage rates creeped up.

“Demand to buy homes is really weak,” said Patrick Newport, economist at IHS Global Insight.

The RevPAR rate for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.’s North America properties, which boasts such swanky spots as the W and St. Regis, dropped 20.5 percent in the year ended Dec. 31.

The national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage got comfortable at 5.15 percent, not budging one bit in the week ended Feb. 10 from the previous week, Bankrate.com reported Thursday.

Four of the city’s real estate all-stars—an appraiser, investor, academic  and analyst—spent a little over two hours bemoaning the industry’s bleak 2010 fate at Thursday’s Chicago Association of Realtors Forecast. Then, they boiled their complicated, chart-heavy predictions into a bookmark-sized Letterman-esque top 10 list.

Existing homes, like this one in Lakeview, had a boost in sales last year for the first time since 2005. Jacquelyn Ryan/MEDILL

BY JACQUELYN  RYAN – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

New homes sales fell 7.6 percent in December from the previous month, helping to make 2009 the worst year on record for sales [...]

Megan Mollmann/MEDILL

BY MEGAN MOLLMANN – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

New, single-family home sales beat analyst expectations and surged 9.6 percent in July from the previous month, the Census Bureau said Wednesday.

Sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of433,000 compared with the revised June rate of 395,000. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg LP forecasted [...]

Chicago foreclosure activity counts by zip code/Realtytrac.com

BY MEGAN MOLLMANN – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Foreclosures increased 7 percent nationwide in July, according to Realtytrac.com. Illinois came in fifth place for total foreclosure activity, with 14,524 properties receiving a foreclosure filing, and default notices skyrocketed 86 percent during the month, said Realtytrac in a press [...]

BY MEGAN MOLLMANN – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Although there was good news this week that housing prices are on the rebound, the aftershocks of the housing bubble are still being felt.

Chicago’s foreclosure rate shot up 30.3 percent in the first half of 2009 compared with January through June of 2008, according to a [...]