The HousingCoach Blog
Important and useful information about Home Buying, Home Selling and the Chicagoland Real Estate market, to help you make the most of Your Personal American Dream. Explore, Learn, and Take Action.
Young First-Time Buyers Are Saving for Their Dream Homes
Young buyers (Millennials & Gen Z) have waited longer than previous generations to enter the housing market for their first home. However, this hasn’t stopped them from dreaming about the home they will eventually buy. Many spend hours searching listings and building...
What You Need to Know About Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)
Whether it is your first time or your fifth, it is always important to know all the facts when it comes to buying a home. With the large number of mortgage programs available that allow buyers to purchase homes with down payments below 20%, you can never have too much...
Why Is So Much Paperwork Required to Get a Mortgage?
When buying a home today, why is there so much paperwork mandated by the lenders for a mortgage loan application? It seems like they need to know everything about you. Furthermore, it requires three separate sources to validate each and every entry on the application...
5 Reasons to Sell Your House This Summer
Here are 5 compelling reasons listing your home for sale this summer makes sense. 1. Demand Is Strong The latest Buyer Traffic Index from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows that buyer demand remains strong throughout the vast majority of the country....
Top 4 Renovations for the Greatest Return on Investment! [INFOGRAPHIC]
Some Highlights: If you are planning on listing your house for sale this year, these four home improvement projects will net you the most Return on Investment (ROI). Minor renovations can go a long way toward improving the quality of your everyday life and/or...
Time for Your Dream Home, Gen X!
During the housing market crash, Gen X homeowners lost more wealth than other generations. However, things are changing now! A strong economy, increasing home prices, and the recovery of the housing market are helping this generation to regain their lost wealth....
3 Things to Know in the Housing Market Today!
A lot is happening in the world, and it’s having a direct impact on the housing market. The reality is this: some of it is positive and some of it may be negative. Some we just don’t know yet. The following three areas of the housing market are critical to understand:...
Renting or Owning, What Is Better for You?
In a real estate market where home prices are rising, many have begun to reexamine the idea of buying a home, choosing instead, to rent for a while. But often, there is a dilemma: should you keep paying rent, knowing that rent is rising too, or should you lock in your...
2 Myths Holding Back Home Buyers
Freddie Mac recently released a report entitled, “Perceptions of Down Payment Consumer Research.” Their research revealed that, “For many prospective homebuyers, saving for a down payment is the largest barrier to achieving the goal of homeownership. Part of the...
What is the Cost of Waiting Until Next Year to Buy? [INFOGRAPHIC]
Some Highlights: The “cost of waiting to buy” is defined as the additional funds necessary to buy a home if prices & interest rates were to increase over a period of time. Freddie Mac forecasts interest rates to rise to 4.5% by the Q4 2020. CoreLogic predicts home...
What is Important to Boomers when Selling their House?
If you are a “baby boomer” (born between 1946 and 1964), you may be thinking about selling your current home. Your children may have finally moved out. Your large, four-bedroom house with three bathrooms no longer fits the bill. Taxes are too high. Utilities are too...
The Feeling You Get from Owning Your Home
We often talk about the financial reasons why buying a home makes sense. But, more often than not, the emotional reasons are the more powerful and compelling ones. No matter what shape or size your living space is, the concept and feeling of home can mean different...
How Homeownership Delivers Unsurpassed Family Wealth
There are many financial benefits to homeownership, but probably none more important than its ability to create family wealth. How Housing Matters is a joint project of the Urban Land Institute and the MacArthur Foundation. It is an online resource for research and...
4 Reasons to Buy A Home This Summer
Here are four reasons to consider buying today instead of waiting. 1. Prices Will Continue to Rise CoreLogic’s latest U.S. Home Price Insights reports that home prices have appreciated by 3.7% over the last 12 months. The same report predicts that prices will continue...
The Top Reasons to Own Your Home [INFOGRAPHIC]
Some Highlights: June is National Homeownership Month! Now is a great time to reflect on the many benefits of homeownership that go way beyond the financial. What reasons do you have to own your own home?
The Ultimate Truth about Housing Affordability
There have been many headlines decrying an “affordability crisis” in the residential real estate market. While it is true that buying a home is less affordable than it had been over the last ten years, we need to understand why and what that means. On a monthly basis,...
Multigenerational Homes Are on the Rise
As loved ones start to get older, we start to wonder: how long will they be able to live alone? Will they need someone there to help them with daily life? There’s a reason to ask those questions now more than ever, as the average age in the U.S. is 78 years old! As a...
2 Things You Need to Know to Properly Price Your Home
In today’s housing market, home prices are increasing at a slower pace (3.7%) than they have over the last eight years (6-7%). However, they are still are above historical norms. Low supply of listed homes and high demand from buyers has pushed prices to rise rapidly....
All Gave Some. Some Gave All.
We remember, today and always.
The Impact Staging Your Home Has On Your Sale Price [INFOGRAPHIC]
Some Highlights: The National Association of Realtors surveyed their members & released the findings of their Profile of Home Staging. 62% of seller’s agents say that staging a home decreases the amount of time a home spends on the market. 50% of staged homes saw a...
4 Most Popular Bottom Line Investments in America
Every year, Gallup surveys Americans to determine their choice for the best long-term investment. Respondents are given a choice between real estate, stocks, gold, and savings accounts. For the sixth year in a row, real estate has come out on top as the best long-term...
Boomerang Buyers: Don’t Be Afraid to Buy a Home Again!
According to CoreLogic, from 2006 to 2014 “there were 7.3 million housing foreclosures and 1.9 million short sales.” The hesitation some Americans feel after experiencing a foreclosure brings to mind the old saying: “Fool me once- shame on you. Fool me twice- shame on...
Are Older Generations Really Not Selling Their Homes?
Many studies suggest one of the main reasons for the inventory shortage in today’s market of homes for sale is that older generations have chosen to “age in place” over moving. The 2019 Home Buyers & Sellers Generational Trend Report by NAR clarifies this point! NAR’s...
Starting the Search for Your Dream Home? Here Are 5 Tips!
In today’s real estate market, low inventory dominates the conversation in many areas of the country. It can often be frustrating to be a first-time homebuyer if you aren’t prepared. In a realtor.com article entitled, “How to Find Your Dream Home—Without Losing Your...






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