(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 [...]

BY KATE SHELLNUTT - MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

The Treasury announced new incentives Tuesday for lenders to modify second mortgages in an effort by the Obama administration to further help troubled borrowers. Mortgage experts say the plan’s expansion, which taps into a $50 billion rescue fund, may not be enough to help the [...]

As spring begins, companies that treat and build decks are seeing steady business in Chicago, as city-dwellers begin to spend more time on their decks. Kate Shellnutt/MEDILL

BY KATE SHELLNUTT – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

After a freezing winter in Chicago, locals are eager to enjoy their outdoor living spaces, and they’re willing [...]

Tenants across Chicago are subletting their units, like one in this Near North apartment building. (SUBLET.COM)

BY KATE SHELLNUTT – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Spring is the peak time for sublet-searching, and with the current economy, more renters are feeling the pinch of that monthly check and offering up rooms in their city digs.

Available [...]

Online calculators and quizzes, like this one at frontdoor.com, may offer assistance to overwhelmed buyers.

BY KATE SHELLNUTT – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Across the country, home prices are continuing their freefall (here in Chicago, they dropped 16 percent in 2008, according to the latest Case-Shiller Index report) and unsold properties remain [...]

Tris Reid, Author of Options After Foreclosure

CLAUDIA-TERESA POU – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

It has been reported by CNN and other news outlets that as more and more Americans lose their jobs, some churches have seen an influx of people turning to faith as a means of coping.  The churches’ message to followers [...]

BY INYOUNG HWANG – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

New home sales plummeted in December to a record low, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, signaling that the housing crisis is far from over due to the credit crunch and surplus of homes.

Sales of new single-family houses were at a [...]

BY MARJORIE KORN, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Home Depot Inc. [[HD]] saw its net earnings tumble 24 percent for the second quarter of 2008 to $1.2 billion, or 71 cents per diluted share, from $1.6 billion, or 77 cents per diluted share this time last year. Despite its [...]

BY MARJORIE KORN, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Fannie Mae [[FNM]] was poised to open more than 16 percent lower, after plunging by $1.65 per share in premarket trading Friday, hovering around $8.30 down from Thursday’s close of $9.95, the lowest since July 16. The company’s 52-week low of $6.68 was set July 11.

In a press [...]