It's not every day that a major celebrity like Johnny Depp comes to our little town of Crown Point. Mr. Depp was here to portray Hoosier legend John Dillinger in the upcoming Michael Mann film, Public Enemies. For three days, they were filming the infamous breakout scene where Dillinger made his escape from the Lake County jail. Our office, which was not far from the film's shooting, was in an uproar...(read more)

Courtesy: USA Today Renters be warned: Landlords are expected to raise apartment rents for a third-straight year in 2007, forcing tenants to turn over a growing chunk of their pay and making it harder to save for a home, a report to be issued by Marcus & Millichap finds. With the projected rise of 5% this year, rents would be 14% higher than at the end of 2004, the report says. Over the same..(read more)

From www.nwitimes.com Rates on 30-year mortgages were unchanged in the first week of the new year after posting three consecutive increases to close out 2006.

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.18 percent this week, the same as last week. Analysts said the markets in recent days have gotten some confusing messages about how serious..(read more)

From www.post-trib.com What housing bubble? While much of the nation suffers from continued falling housing prices, Lake County will see 3.2 percent growth over past year in residential real estate value in 2007, according to a report by Fortune magazine. This places Lake fifth in the Midwest and 30th in the nation in a ranking of 100 real estate markets conducted by the magazine. Porter County..(read more)

Courtesy: CNNMoney.com Mortgage rates fell for the sixth week in a row, to nearly the lowest level of the year, as a slowing housing market helped keep rates down, a survey said Thursday. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.11 percent in the week ended Dec. 7 from 6.14 percent in the prior week, according to Freddie Mac's (Charts) Primary Mortgage Market Survey. It was the lowest the 30-year..(read more)

Courtesy: CNNMoney.com A top economist and market strategist at Citigroup both say they did not think the housing slowdown is going to cause the economy to plunge into a recession or the stock market to fall into a tailspin in 2007. Speaking at a breakfast for financial reporters at the company's headquarters in New York in November, Citigroup senior economist Steven Wieting said that concerns about..(read more)

Courtesy: The Times of Northwest Indiana Mortgage rates around the country fell this week, with rates on 30-year mortgages sinking to their lowest level in 10 months.

Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported Wednesday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.18 percent for the week ending Nov. 22. That's down from 6.24 percent last week and was the lowest rate since the week..(read more)

Many homeowners in Northwest Indiana have had some major flooding problems over the last month. Today, President Bush declared Lake County a major disaster area. He ordered Federal aid to supplement State and local recovery efforts in the area struck by severe storms and flooding from September 12-14.

Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home..(read more)

From Yahoo! Real Estate By Kendra Todd - September 26, 2006 You can't go anywhere without hearing people talk about "the real estate bubble." Such talk drives me to distraction, and I'll tell you why. It's because there is no real estate bubble. Bubbles are for bathtubs. Despite a thousand articles in Sunday newspaper real estate sections, the bubble is a myth. The real estate markets..(read more)

As I'm sure you've seen in newspapers and on TV, the national real estate market is falling in 2006. The national average of home sales is down, so people always ask me, "How is the Northwest Indiana real estate market doing?" It's an easy answer... great! It's important to remember that real estate is a local market driven by local conditions. You also need to remember that if the national..(read more)