The trend toward renting versus buying a home trickled down to the bottom line for landlords this year, as more than $14.3 billion in rent was paid in the Chicago area, an increase of 7.4 percent from 2013, according to an analysis by Zillow.

Chicago-area homes prices continued to lose traction in October, posting a second consecutive monthly decrease, according to a widely watched index.

By one estimate, institutional buyers that acquire distressed homes and convert them into rentals bought about 9,500 properties in the Chicago area in a 32-month period that ended in August.

Related Midwest's proposal to construct a hybrid residential tower in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood won the backing of the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday, but the project's scope has been retooled.

It's almost time to take down the 2014 calendar and hang up a new one in its place, one that's empty except for plenty of expectations of what the new year will bring.

Financially strapped homeowners who sold their home this year in a short sale or received a loan modification that includes a principal reduction appear likely to benefit from the same tax break that helped similarly distressed consumers in the past six years.

A high-priced condominium development may be headed to North Wabash Avenue, just north of Trump International Hotel & Tower.

Suburbs that have long thought of themselves as bucolic communities filled with houses and families are warmly embracing the very type of residence that used to make them leery: the apartment.