If an economy is growing but not creating enough jobs, is the economy really growing? That might very well be a philosophical question one of many recent college graduates has time to ponder as they stroll the Riverwalk on a weekday afternoon, with their resume in hand on their way to yet another job interview.

A few weeks ago, the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce published an update on local economic indicators in a note to our membership and received interesting feedback on the piece. The aggregate totals of locally assessed taxes such as the sales tax and real estate transfer tax have grown faster than inflation, which normally would indicate a robust and vibrant economy.

However, these gains have been outweighed by the stubbornly high unemployment rate and other indicators that demonstrate the economy’s uneven strength and recovery. While growth in the economy and belt tightening have helped balance our local governments’ budgets, we cannot lose sight of the 5,800 Naperville residents who are looking for work and cannot find a job.

Our local unemployment rate remains roughly double what it was before the recession, and we’re supposedly several years into “recovery.” But the chamber also recognizes that our local fortunes are tied to the decisions made in capitals domestically and internationally, and broader trends within the global economy. KEEP READING

Aug. 9, 2013, Only a year and a half ago, none other than Warren Buffett told CNBC he would invest in "a couple hundred thousand" single-family homes if it were practical. But in that short period, the national housing market has gone from the cheapest it has been in a quarter-century to slightly overpriced—at least according to some measures. Relatively cheap mortgages still make it a great time to buy a home to live in, but anyone hoping to treat it as an "investment" should be wary. In early 2012, homes did indeed look inexpensive. To measure home values, some researchers divide home prices by rents. The resulting price/rent ratio is similar to the price/earnings ratio commonly used to evaluate stocks. KEEP READING 

WASHINGTON — Since Congress has taken off on its annual summer recess, you might assume that nothing is happening on Capitol Hill that could affect the taxes you pay on your home. Quite the reverse.

Staff members of the House and Senate tax-writing committees are busy putting together legislative drafts that may determine the fate of real estate's most prized tax benefits — first and second home-mortgage interest deductions, property tax write-offs, capital gains exclusions and others.

Both committees' chairmen have promised major tax reform proposals this fall. They've been evaluating deductions, credits and loopholes in terms of revenue costs and economic benefits, including the $70-billion-plus yearly expense of the mortgage interest write-off. The process that's underway represents the most serious effort to simplify and reorganize federal tax law since the Tax Reform Act of 1986.  Keep Reading 

Aug 9th 2013 ..As the Colorado housing market rebounds, baby boomers are becoming a key player. Housing prices are up, and interest rates are low which makes this the perfect time for many baby boomers to sell those big houses they raised their families in and downsize into much smaller homes. And in Denver, one new trend among baby boomers is moving downtown.
Cindy and her husband, Cisco Uribe are among those empty-nesters who are giving up life in the suburbs for a new lifestyle downtown.“We went from a big kitchen to a little galley kitchen,” Cisco says as he shows CBS4 around the couple’s new condo in Brooks Tower in downtown Denver.  KEEP READING Written for CBSDenver.com by CBS4 Special Projects Producer Libby Smith 

July 10 -2013 Rising mortgage rates are the biggest worry for prospective home buyers—bigger than rising prices and the lack of available choices, according to a survey released today by Trulia, an online real estate site.

Still, the survey suggested that rates—which remain below 5%—aren’t likely to be a deterrent to home buyers just yet.

Mortgage rates have jumped in recent weeks, creating concerns that the rebounding real-estate market could lose steam. A separate survey released Wednesday from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 4.68% last week—the highest rate in two years and up from 4.58% a week earlier.

While prospective homeowners may be concerned about rising rates, they shouldn’t be surprised, Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko notes in a blog post about mortgage rates. Economists have been expecting rates to increase because the economy is improving and market expectations that the Federal Reserve will ease up on bond buying and other extraordinary measures designed to keep interest rates low.   . . . KEEP READING

Home prices moved up at a torrid pace during the first half of the year, but don’t expect them to keep pace during the second half.

The big spike in mortgage rates over the past two months has reset the housing market and figures to take a bite out of demand at a time when more sellers have listed homes for sale and when price gains have tested investors’ purchasing appetites.

Mortgage rates, which stood at a low of 3.59% at the beginning of May, jumped to 4.58% during the last week of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Rates rose even more last Friday, after a strong jobs report firmed up investors’ expectations that the Federal Reserve would begin to curtail its bond-buying program later this year.

A rule of thumb holds that every one percentage point increase in interest rates reduces affordability by 10%, so the recent move in rates just made homes about 10% more expensive to buyers who need to finance their purchase.

“There’s no one in the business right now who doesn’t think the market hasn’t taken a step back. The evidence is all around us,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of real-estate brokerage Redfin. The number of Redfin customers who requested tours during the last week of June was down 5% from the average for the previous three weeks, while the number of customers making offers was down by 8% and the number of new customers edged down by 2%. . . . KEEP READING

During Inman Real Estate Connect San Francisco’s session titled "The Industry Destiny: Imagine Your Industry Destiny in 2018", an adversarial panel took the stage to discuss future trends within the real estate industry.

The panel included Redfin’s CEO, Trulia’s CEO, Zillow’s COO, Realtor.com’s President and Forbes Media’s Senior Real Estate Reporter.

One such trend was the need for each online real estate software platform to work together more effectively through the use of established open APIs in order to exchange relevant data about a user’s context. User personalization and more intelligent recommendations were the driving force behind this view point.

Each company identified the need to pass information back and forth between each other to facilitate a better understanding of a user’s current needs and determine where they are within the home buying or selling process.

For example, if a home buyer started their search on www.zillow.com and then switched to www.trulia.com, Trulia should be able to ask Zillow, via their open API, for relevant data related to what type of homes they might be interested in, how many homes they have already viewed or what agents they have contacted. . . . KEEP READING