Sailing the High Seas of Holiday Shopping with Credit Cards

Holiday shopping is upon us: sales left, clearances right, and gift-wrapping straight ahead! It’s this time of year when more people choose to use their credit cards to navigate their way through purchases, from November all the way through January. Janet Dedrick offers some wisdom and analysis of this surge in her article on the Equifax Finance Blog, “Credit Card Shopping Rises for the Holidays.”

Foreclosure Prevention Workshops Save Homes

Are you behind on your Chicago real estate mortgage payments? Are you concerned about losing your home?

Want to do something about it?

Illinois has the fourth highest foreclosure rate in the country, and in Cook County alone, one in every 357 homeowners received a foreclosure filing in the third quarter of this year.

World’s Tallest Building from Chicago Real Estate Firm

The Willis Tower, the tallest piece of Chicago real estate and the tallest building on the continent, stands at 442 meters high. A new tower is going to be built on the other side of the world that will triple that height, and a Chicago-based architectural group is designing it.

How Could a Government Default Affect You?

We’ve been hearing a lot about the debt ceiling. So much, in fact, that President Barack Obama went on television last night and asked for help from you and me to work it out.

But do the American people even know what will happen if lawmakers fail to raise the debt ceiling by the August 2 deadline?

Does anyone really know? After all, it’s never happened before.

If the President and the Republican-heavy House can’t come to an agreement by next week, the United States will no longer be able to pay all of its bills.

Chicago Real Estate Producing iPads

Apparently, Chicagoland Real Estate Forum has competition.

Our website has been running a contest in which our readers can win an iTunes gift card in June, July and August; the last one filled with enough dough to purchase a brand new iPad.

We’ve already awarded a reader in May. See:

We Have a Chicago Real Estate Winner; You Can Be One Too!

Chicago and the U.S. received another round of gloomy forecasts for the real estate market last week. According to the Equifax Personal Finance Blog, a wide array of different sources confirmed the bad news for American homeowners, would-be buyers and the housing market as a whole. Real estate expert Ilyce Glink reported this news in her recent article, “Housing Market Predictions: Home Values Continue to Sink.”

Free Ways to Keep Your Chicago Kids Busy This Summer

It’s the summer season in Chicago. If you have kids, this extra time together can bring forth a sense of excitement … and fear.

What to do with them for three months?!?

You can certainly put them to work in your Chicago real estate, or you can get them out of that house and keep them entertained.

I doubt you need advice for the former. Here are some ideas for the latter, and you won’t have to break the piggy bank for them, either.

Chicago Housing Market Improves

An April Chicago real estate report revealed positive news regarding home sales and home prices throughout our state, though experts are urging home buyers and sellers to act now.

According to the Illinois Association of REALTORS®, April was the third straight month in which our state has posted an increase in home sales.

In April, 8,526 homes were sold in Illinois, a rise of 8.5 percent over the previous month. The median home price was $136,066, a 4.7 percent increase from $130,000 in March.