Is it a Good Time to Invest in a Rental?
January 29, 2012 by Marina
Filed under Marina's Blog, Market Watch
If you’ve been watching the housing market’s long-term slump, you’ve probably wondered if it’s time to pick up an investment property. Here are the things you need to check before you make that commitment: Read More…
MLS Search -See what properties are renting for and what you can purchace them for.
Home sales continue to improve.
January 21, 2012 by Marina
Filed under Marina's Blog
Intereating Information.
The National Association of Realtors reported that the annual sales pace in December reached 4.6 million homes, up 5% from November’s pace and 3.6% from a year ago.
Local Real Estate Market Glenview, Northbrook, Morton Grove.
National: It was the third straight month of improvement in the pace of sales. The fourth-quarter sales volume lifted full-year sales to 4.26 million homes, up 1.7% from 2010 levels.
The median price was $164,500 in December, down 2.5% from a year ago. For the full year, the median price of $166,100 was off 3.9% from 2010 levels.
Foreclosures made up 21% of all sales, while short sales were 12%. Both figures were comparable to 2010.
Jobless claims fall to nearly 3-year low
March 4, 2011 by Marina
Filed under Marina's Blog
Hope this will help our Real Estate Market to recover, inventory to diminish and homes to sell.
By Hibah Yousuf, staff reporter
March 3, 2011: 10:18 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — In another sign that the job market is slowly recovering, the number of Americans
filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to a nearly 3-year low.
There were 368,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Feb. 26, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was down 20,000 from the week before, and the lowest since May 2008.
Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected initial claims to rise to 400,000 in the latest report.
The 4-week moving average of initial claims, which aims to smooth out volatility, also improved, falling to 388,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 401,250. That’s the lowest since July 2008.
The weekly figure has hovered close to the 400,000 level since December, but are on a downward trajectory.
“The most positive thing seems to be that claims broke out of the 400,000 range, where they’ve been stuck for a while,” said Dan Cook, chief executive officer of IG Markets. “Not to say we can’t pop back up, but it seems like jobless claims are heading lower into the next range, around 350,000.”
Still, Cook added that while the job market is headed in the right direction, it’s recovering only at a snail’s pace, with job creation at sluggish levels.
“We’re still not out of the woods,” he said. “The housing sector is in really rough shape, and even though corporations have a lot of cash on their balance sheets, they’re not ready to let it go. Those two factors make it really difficult to add jobs.”
The Labor Department is on tap to release the February jobs report Friday morning. Economists are expecting the economy added 190,000 jobs last month, up from just a gain of 50,000 in January.
The unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 9.2%, after falling to 9% in January.
Meanwhile, continuing claims — which include people filing for the second week of benefits or more — dropped by 59,000 to 3,774,000 in the week ended Feb. 19, the most recent week available.
How To Buy A Home
August 5, 2009 by Marina
Filed under Buying a Home
You can get some idea of home’s value by searching the Internet. A number of Web sites and services crunch the numbers from historic public records of home sales to produce the statistics. Some services offer an actual 
estimate of value based on acceptable software appraisal standards. They also depend on historic home sales records to calculate the estimate. Neither of these services produce official appraisals. They also don’t factor in market nuances or other issues a certified appraiser or real estate professional might in assessing the value of your home. Read more:
![[Meet Marina Jacobson Northern Illinois Realtor]](http://www.marinajacobsonhomes.com/images/marina-jacobson.png)
