While homeowners insurance premiums have been rising sharply in the post-pandemic landscape across the U.S. — from wildfire-ravaged California to hurricane-flooded North Carolina — rates are increasing faster in Illinois than all but one other state.

A new report by the Consumer Federation of America showed homeowners premiums increased ...Read more

Ashley Rodriguez loves living in Atlanta’s Summerhill neighborhood. Her two children can play in nearby parks, she can walk to her favorite restaurants, and it feels pretty safe.

“The people that live here are great too, and the schools are also good,” she said. “If I had my way, I wouldn’t leave.”

But because she’s renting her ...Read more

New tariffs on steel and aluminum could force Chicago apartment developers, already affected by elevated interest rates and soaring labor costs, to further delay breaking ground on new projects.

The White House began implementing tariffs of 25% on global steel and aluminum imports March 12, saying it wants to stimulate domestic production. But ...Read more

As a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and someone who edits personal finance content for a living, I’ve seen firsthand how the rise of financial content on social media has transformed how we learn about money. Almost half of Gen Zers who received financial advice in 2023 heard it from social media influencers, according to a Bankrate survey....Read more

With the economy slowing and President Donald Trump’s tariffs likely to stoke inflation, investors face various risks. Building a portfolio that has at least some less risky assets in it can be useful to help you ride out volatility in the market.

The trade-off, of course, is that in lowering risk exposure, investors are likely to earn lower ...Read more

SEATTLE — In 2014, new owners purchased Panorama House, an 18-story building on First Hill, and to renovate the decades-old apartments, they kicked out 200 tenants, many of them elderly and retired.

Explicitly or not, they were making room for a deluge of younger renters moving to a city unequipped to fit newcomers. Many transplants had an ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In what consumer advocates say is a win for homebuyers and sellers, the National Association of Realtors, the major trade association representing the real estate industry, has largely rebuffed a push by the largest U.S. brokerage to end a policy requiring agents to publicly list properties for sale on local online databases...Read more

Key takeaways

— Day trading and one-off investment picks may not pan out and could derail your investing progress.

— Permanent life insurance and other investments with “guaranteed returns” aren’t clear-cut winners. Contrary to what some finfluencers may claim, no return is 100 percent guaranteed.

— Over-investing in precious ...Read more

The odds of a recession are rising, according to economists. A tumbling stock market, escalating trade tensions with China, a disappointing jobs report, tariffs and worsening consumer sentiment have made for a turbulent first quarter of 2025.

While President Donald Trump says he doesn’t see a U.S. recession on the horizon, according to ...Read more

A 401(k) retirement plan is one of the most popular ways to save money for retirement and score some tax breaks for doing so. But often these plans don’t provide a lot of guidance on how to manage them, and participants end up with wildly aggressive portfolios, or, what experts often see, a portfolio so conservative that it barely budges year ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Chicago-based National Association of Realtors is laying off nearly 12% of its staff and eliminating 20 open positions, according to a news release posted on the organization’s website Friday.

The cuts affect 41 of NAR’s 344 employees and, with the elimination of open roles, hit various departments including public relations...Read more

The Chicago-based National Association of Realtors is laying off nearly 12% of its staff and eliminating 20 open positions, according to a news release posted on the organization’s website Friday.

The cuts affect 41 of NAR’s 344 employees and, with the elimination of open roles, hit various departments including public relations and ...Read more

At a time when many office developers are on the sidelines because of the soft leasing market, Apple Inc. is well underway on construction of a splashy new office complex of its own on the border of Culver City and Los Angeles.

With excavation for an underground garage completed, construction crews have erected cranes and are building upward on...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The sense of loss Sue Labella feels after the Pacific Palisades home she’d lived in for almost 50 years burned down in January’s wildfire is only matched by her desire to return.

To come back as fast as possible, the 83-year-old widow has decided on a home radically different from the 1939 Tudor where she and her husband ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Silicon Valley office market is getting off to a good start in 2025, according to a new report that detailed improvements on multiple fronts in the region.

The vacancy rate fell, rents increased, and overall deal activity expanded in the South Bay during the January-through-March first quarter of 2025, Colliers, a ...Read more

After homeownership rates dipped across the board the year before, Black households saw the greatest year-over-year increase among all races in 2023, a new report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) says.

Nationally, Black homeowner rates rose to 44.7% — up .6 percentage points from 2022, according to NAR’s 2025 Snapshot of Race...Read more

CHICAGO -- Some suburban voters are facing key decisions about hiking property taxes in the April 1 election, but if the past is precedent, “the few will decide for the many” again, according to a report from Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas’ office.

Referendums for $45 million in infrastructure spending in Western Springs, $94.9 ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — San Diego home price gains slowed to their lowest level to start 2025 in almost two years.

In January, the San Diego metropolitan area’s home price increased 3.39% annually, said the S&P Case-Shiller Indices report released this week. The highest gains in the 20-city index were in the New York metro area, at 7.75%, and Chicago, ...Read more

Finding my first place out of college, I didn’t need too much. So long as the walls weren’t stained with gunk from previous tenants and the kitchen was operable, I was satisfied.

For most people, that makes finding an apartment rather easy. But Freddie, my sweet — sometimes high-maintenance — pit bull mix, complicated matters.

Freddie ...Read more