Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage named local agent Craig Hogan the director of its Previews luxury practice group for the city of Chicago. Hogan comes to Coldwell Banker from Keller Williams, bringing with him 14 years of residential real estate experience with a specialty in Chicago’s luxury market.
The announcement comes after Coldwell Banker’s acquisition of four local Keller Williams offices earlier this month, including the Gold Coast office where Hogan was the managing broker. Hogan helped launch Keller Williams’ luxury brand in Chicago. He was also a standing board member with …

Residential brokerage @properties has acquired The Tricia Fox Group, a 19-agent group headed by veteran Gold Coast broker Tricia Fox, part of a post-acquisition shakeup that has become a recurring story in the real estate industry.

Dream Town Realty welcomed five area Realtors to the company in December of last year. The new recruits include David Romanoff, Matt Barnes, Nancy Lundquist, Mark Lemus and Andy Weber, who will all serve as residential specialists.

 
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has announced the 2012 finalist for the Best of 50+ Housing Awards.
The awards honor excellence in the building, design and marketing of housing for the baby boomer generation and beyond.
“We are excited to announce the award-winning projects during the 2012 NAHB International Builders’ Show,” said Bob Nielsen NAHB chairmen.
Seventy-nine entries were chosen as finalist for the NAHB Best of 50+ housing awards. Each entry is eligible to win a Gold or Silver Award during the International Builders’ Show on Thursday, February 9, 2012 …

The Federal Housing Finance Administration and its Acting Director, Edward DeMarco, have been receiving some considerable heat from analysts and members of Congress for their refusal to consider principal write downs for homeowners with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac distressed mortgages.
In its defense (and response to a Congressional threat to subpoena), the agency has released the findings of a 2010 study on principal write downs that concluded such a program would cost Fannie and Freddie more than $100 billion; and with both GSEs under public receivership, those funds would be collected …

The Appraisal Institute (AI) ruffled many feathers last week by taking a “Don’t Shoot the Messenger” stance in regards to recent controversies in home valuations, but recent reports suggest that the institute may be amending its stance on how its members operate.

Housing was largely absent from President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union Address, but he did mention a potentially game-changing proposal – a mass refinancing plan for homeowners that are current on their mortgages that, according to the President, could save them roughly $3,000 a year on their mortgages.

Curbed reported that Skyscraper Page forum has posted a rendering of the latest proposal for a new university housing project for the Loop.
The new rental building is aimed at students, faculty and staff in the downtown area, and was designed by Lothan Van Hook DeStefano Architecture LLC.

After reaching a 19-month high in November, the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index declined by 3.5 percent in December, though it did retain the year-over-year gains that defined much of housing data in 2011.
A forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, the Index fell from 100.1 in November to 96.6 in December. The Index is 5.6 percent higher than in December 2010, when it was 91.5.