Five years after the U.S. housing bubble burst, a jump in housing starts and a decline in foreclosure filings have some predicting a turnaround.

Real Estate Investment Trusts, or REITs, invest in and operate income-generating real estate. And the hot trend in REIT investment today is apartment buildings.

Housing affordability is the best it’s been in decades due to low interest rates and home prices. So why are more people renting than buying?

Homeowners with underwater mortgages can breathe a little easier following the $25 billion agreement between by state and federal officials and the country’s biggest mortgage lenders over fraudulent mortgage foreclosure practices.

Hong Kong has been experiencing some tumultuous times of its own: home prices have increased 13 percent this year on top of a 30 percent jump in 2009.

As “mortgage-backed security” became a dirty word, security underwriters backed off the playing field. But toward the end of April, California-based Redwood Trust Inc. became the first to tag back in.

Photo courtesy Truthout.org

While the rate of Illinois homeowners behind on their mortgage payments fell this year, the share of those borrowers beginning the foreclosure process spiked to 5.85 percent – over a full point above the record-high national rate.

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 [...]

(Kate Shellnutt/MEDILL)

BY KATE SHELLNUTT – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

You didn’t have to look at your calendar yesterday to realize it was June 1—the start of moving season, when leases expire and Chicagoans move in and out—you could have just looked out your window.

U-Haul vans and moving trucks, back [...]

BY KATE SHELLNUTT – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Real estate agents can find themselves in scary situations; for example, all alone in an empty house.

So companies, like @properties in Chicago, and industry groups across the country are doing more to emphasize safety and self-defense.

Agents are often working on their own and [...]