The Home Front

Chicago homeowners are getting soaked by rising property taxes. By Don DeBat Chicago and Cook County’s brainy real estate tax experts are pointing fingers of blame while trying to explain the perfect storm. When tens of thousands of Chicago homeowners realized that their median property tax bills catapulted 16.7 percent in a single year, reality hit them between the eyes. Experts say the tax wave tsunami was caused by the financial death dance between fat-cat downtown commerc

Photo obtained from Lincoln Park Builders of Chicago. Over 1,000 builders and real estate professionals gathered at the Lincoln Park Builders of Chicago’s Real Estate Forum to discuss civic priorities, market conditions, and future profits. By Don DeBat Looking to 2026 and beyond, Chicago builders likely will have to juggle civic priorities, analyze market conditions, and gaze into the crystal ball on the direction of mortgage interest rates in order to bank future profits. T

(Above) City workers remove water from Lower Wacker Drive near Randolph Street after overnight flooding on May 18, 2020. Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP. By Don DeBat The once extremely profitable Illinois property insurance industry literally is blowing in the wind and battling a rising tide of property damage from weather extremes nationwide. Billions of dollars in losses sparked by California wildfires and forest fires in western states – and an unprecedented

Economists predict that a recent quarter-point interest rate reduction by the Federal Reserve could lead to mortgage rates as low as 5.75...

(Above) Google Street View of 200 West Monroe Street in the Loop. Valued at $100 million when purchased in 2014, the 23-story building...