Mary Ellen Podmolik – Page 13

Boarded up homes in the 5900 block of South Morgan Street in the Englewood neighborhood in Chicago on Sunday, June 19, 2011.

Chicago’s ‘zombie’ properties decline, but number still scares housing experts

June 16, 2018 at 12:44 a.m.

Zombie foreclosures, so labeled because they're vacant and stuck in the foreclosure process, declined 35 percent in the Chicago area last month from a year ago, but there are still...

Easier mortgage terms seem to be catching on

May 25, 2019 at 1:48 p.m.

Mortgage lenders appear to be loosening their purse strings, largely as a result of major changes recently announced to government-based loan products. An index on mortgage credit availability calculated by...

12 firms to share PrivateBank home rehab funds

June 16, 2018 at 2:02 a.m.

A dozen groups in the Chicago area, a combination of small for-profit firms and community-based nonprofits, will receive funding from The PrivateBank to help with their purchase of distressed homes...

Last year’s mortgage refinancers could save a total of $5 billion

June 16, 2018 at 2:17 a.m.

Homeowners who refinanced their mortgages last year should have some extra coin in their pockets this year: $5 billion worth of saved interest in the first 12 months. Only about...

Area apartments fast-track renovations as competition grows

May 25, 2019 at 1:48 p.m.

It was a crowded open house inside two units at Atwater Apartments, a high-rise in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood. Holding glasses of wine, residents mingled, checked out bathrooms, kitchens and blueprints...

Illinois to get $52.5 million from $1.4 billion S&P settlement

May 25, 2019 at 1:48 p.m.

Standard & Poor's Rating Services' tab is $1.38 billion — including $52.5 million for Illinois — to resolve long-standing allegations by federal and state authorities that the firm misled investors...

Cook County land bank may add 700-plus properties

June 16, 2018 at 3:06 a.m.

More than 700 properties that have languished unused, some for almost two decades, may be grabbed by the Cook County Land Bank Authority to make them more attractive to developers....

Homeownership rate continues to decline

June 16, 2018 at 3:23 a.m.

If you sold your house and opted to rent last year, you had plenty of company. The nation's homeownership rate fell in 2014's final quarter to a low not seen...

Websites reveal hot and up-and-coming Chicago neighborhoods

June 16, 2018 at 2:19 a.m.

Delving into the topic of what neighborhoods and communities are hot is a little like a discussion among friends about who's good-looking. There can be general agreement, but when it...

Properties at 1301 S. Tripp Ave., 1001 S. Mayfield Ave. and 1624 S. Loomis St. are on the Chicago Building Department's list of "problem landlords."

City lists ‘problem landlords’ on website

June 16, 2018 at 3:17 a.m.

Chicago's Building Department published its first "problem landlords" list on its website Monday night in an attempt to crack down and publicly shame apartment building owners into providing tenants with...

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