But just as important, mortgage interest rates recently fell to yet another historic low point.

Bloomberg recently reported on this new milestone. According to the story, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan fell to 3.83 percent during the week ended May 10. This is the lowest this figure has been since Freddie Mac began tracking the number in 1971.

Borrowers hoping for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage received good news, too. The average interest rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage loan fell to 3.05 percent last week. That’s down from 3.07 percent the week earlier.

This means that it’s cheaper to finance a home. If you took out a $200,000 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan with an interest rate of 6 percent, you’d face a monthly mortgage payment of $1,199.10.

But if you dropped that interest rate to 3.83 percent for the same loan, you’d have a monthly mortgage payment of just $935.33.

That’s a difference of $263.77 a month, or a little more than $3,165 a year.

So if you’re thinking about buying a home, now might be the time to act. It’s impossible to predict what mortgage interest rates will do in the coming weeks. But the rates today are outstanding ones, historically so.

That’s right: Housing values in the city in February fell to where they last stood in May of 2000, according to the Case-Shiller numbers.

The Case-Shiller report found that Chicago-area single-family home prices fell 2.5 percent in February when compared to January. Prices were down a high 6.9 percent this February compared to the same month one year earlier.

This news is especially grim if you purchased your Chicago-area single-family home or condominium in late 2006. According to Case-Shiller, Chicago-area housing prices have fallen 37.5 percent from where they stood in September of 2006, the peak of housing values in the city and suburbs.

The Crain’s story quotes Tom Feltner, vice president at Chicago’s Woodstock Institute, who says that this probably isn’t the bottom for the Chicago housing market, either. According to Feltner, we should expect to see prices for Chicago-area condos and single-family homes to continue to fall as an influx of foreclosure homes hits the market.

If you have to sell today, and you originally bought your residence in 2004, 2005 or 2006, the reality is that you’ll probably take a loss in the sale. Remember, buyers today don’t care what you paid for your residence six years ago. They only care about what your property’s market value is today.

If you absolutely must sell, then, it’s important to work with a skilled REALTOR® who knows your community. This agent can help you set the right price for your property, one that will generate the highest number of quality offers. It’s important, too, to listen to the advice of your REALTOR® when it comes to listing price. You can be stubborn and demand to list your residence for a higher price. The odds are good, though, that buyers will simply ignore your property and move on to those residences that are priced properly according to today’s market.

According to a story by the Reuters news agency, average monthly apartment rents across the country saw their biggest increase in four years.

This sheds new light on the age-old rent vs. buy question.

Some have said that it makes more financial sense to rent as housing values continue to fall across the country. But does that still hold if apartment rents continue to rise? As rents climb, it no longer seems quite as affordable to rent.

According to the Reuters story, asking rents across the country have risen to $1,070 a month on average. That’s an increase of 0.5percent from the last quarter of 2011. Effective rents, which take away perks offered by landlords such as free months of rent, jumped 0.9 percent during the first quarter of this year to $1,018 a month. That’s the largest increase in effective rents since the first quarter of 2008.

There’s a simple reason why rents are rising so quickly: supply and demand.

The Reuters story reported that apartment vacancy rates in the first quarter of this year fell to their lowest levels in more than a decade, to a stunningly low 4.9 percent. As demand for apartment living increases – thanks in part to housing foreclosures – the supply of available units has been shrinking. That allows landlords to increase the amount of rent they charge each month.

Will this formula change any time soon? It doesn’t look like it. Foreclosures continue to rise, and people who’ve lost their homes need to live somewhere. Many of them are entering the rental market, further reducing the amount of available rental units.

So if you’ve long thought that renting was a cheaper option than is taking on a mortgage loan, the latest numbers suggest that you may have to change that line of thinking.

And that includes residents of Chicago and its suburbs.

Trulia recently released its new rent-vs.-buy study, and the results were intriguing: In 98 out of 100 major markets across the country — including Chicago — it was cheaper for consumers to own a home than it was for them to rent.

The reasons for this? Rents are increasing across the country. They’re certainly rising quickly in Chicago and its suburbs. And at the same time, housing prices continue to fall, in Chicago and across the country.

Then there are the low mortgage interest rates, still around the 4 percent mark for 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loans. This makes it less expensive for buyers to borrow money to finance the purchase of a home.

This all combines to make owning a home more affordable than renting.

I’ve long said that this is a great time to buy a home. Look at our Chicago market. According to data from the Illinois Association of REALTORS(R), median home prices here were down 6.6 percent in February from the same month one year earlier. That translates to a median price of $141,000 this February compared with a median price of $150,000 last year at this time.

And this trend shows no signs of slowing. Housing foreclosures continue to glut the Chicago market. Foreclosures tend to drag down the median sales prices of homes throughout an entire area.

The Trulia study, then, provides yet more evidence that there’s rarely been a better time to buy a home, whether you’re looking for a condominium or single-family home in the Chicago area or across the country.

According to financial Web site Bankrate.com (RYAN: http://www.bankrate.com/financing/mortgages/fha-fees-on-the-rise-again/), starting April 1 borrowers will pay more for upfront mortgage insurance provided by the FHA. This follows a rate increase that came in April of last year. As Bankrate reports, FHA loan fees are now at their highest point in the government agency’s history.

Premiums for FHA insurance will rise from 1 percent to 1.75 percent of the base mortgage loan that borrowers are taking out. The FHA says that the increase will add about $5 a month to the mortgage fees that borrowers pay.

That average $5 increase might not seem like a lot. But buying a home is not an easy financial task for many purchasers today. They won’t appreciate any fee increase.

That being said, FHA-backed loans are still terrific options for today’s home buyers. Of course, the FHA does not originate loans. Instead, the government administration insures them. This doesn’t change the fact, though, that FHA loans offer several benefits to homebuyers.

The most important? For most borrowers, FHA-insured loans require down payments of just 3.5% of a home’s final purchase price. This is a key benefit. Conventional mortgage loans often require buyers to put up at least 10 percent of a home’s purchase price as a down payment.

Consider a single-family home or condominium in the Chicago area that costs $200,000. A 10% down payment would require buyers to come up with $20,000. If these same buyers had good enough credit to qualify for a 3.5% down payment with an FHA loan, they’d only have to come up with $7,000. That’s a big difference.

FHA-backed loans are also available to homebuyers with lower credit scores. Borrowers with FICO credit scores of at least 580 will qualify for the 3.5% down payment requirement. Those with credit scores of 500 to 579 will be able to take out an FHA loan with a down payment requirement of 10 percent.

Those borrowers with credit scores under 500 will not qualify for FHA financing.

Even with the fee increase, then, an FHA loan is still a good chance for many Chicago homebuyers.

According to a recent feature story by the Reuters news wire, a growing number of U.S. residents are choosing to retire closer to their homes than they had in the past. The story cites Chicago as one city that is now attracting a greater number of retirees.

This is a change from the traditional thinking regarding retirees. It used to be that when people moved after retirement they traveled to warm-weather cities in Arizona and Florida.

Today, though, retirees are more often choosing to retire in smaller homes or condominiums near where they spent much of their lives. The Reuters story cites several reasons for this: Retirees often want to remain near their chidren and grandchildren. Others want to remain active with their local churches and community organizations. Others simply have become a part of their community and don’t want to leave it behind, even for the promise of warmer temperatures.

Economic factors are also making cities such as Chicago attractive places for retirement. Many retirees purchased their homes long enough ago that they’ll still make a substantial profit, even in today’s challenging housing market, when they sell their properties. And because housing prices in Chicago and its suburbs are down from their peaks in 2006, these retirees when downsizing can afford nice residences in prime locations.

And by staying in a city like Chicago, retirees can take advantage of the eclectic restaurants, shopping districts and entertainment that a large metro area like ours offers.

I’ve always said that Chicago is one of the best places in the country to live. This new report from Reuters provides me with just one more piece of evidence. If retirees are choosing to live here, despite the (usually) bone-chilling winters, you know that Chicago’s a special place.

You’d think that this combination would sour Illinois residents on the benefits of owning a home. Surprisingly, though, the latest survey by the Illinois Association of REALTORS® shows that state residents still believe that owning a home is an important part of the American dream.

According to the survey of Illinois residents, 75 percent of respondents said that buying a home remains a sounder long-term financial investment than does sinking their money in the stock market.

The survey, of 600 homeowners and renters in the state, also found that 54 percent of respondents said that banks should enact stricter requirements for passing out mortgage dollars. A total of 55 percent of respondents said that the government should make assistance available to help prevent homeowners from losing their residences. Finally, 61 percent of respondents said that owning a home is a better value than renting an apartment.

The poll did find, though, that Illinois residents are realistic about the state of the housing market in Chicago and the rest of the state. A total of 34 percent of respondents said that they thought housing prices would increase a lot or a little in the next five years, while 41 percent said they thought prices would remain the same during this period. An additional 19 percent said that they thought home prices would fall a little or a lot in the next five years.

The survey results offer more evidence that owning a home remains an important goal of most local residents. After all, if the REALTORS® poll shows support for housing that is this strong in such a challenging economy, imagine how many respondents would identify housing as an important financial step if the economy was strong.

According to a report by RealtyTrac, the online foreclosure service, Illinois saw 14,349 foreclosure filings in January of this year, an increase of 14 percent when compared to December of 2011. This means that one in every 369 housing units in the state was in some point of the foreclosure process during the month, according to a feature story by the Associated Press.

It’s important to note that foreclosures as defined by RealtyTrac don’t mean that homeowners have already lost their residences. It just means that homes are at some point in the foreclosure process, a process that could include default notices being sent by banks, auction-sale notices being sent on properties and bank repossessions.

The January foreclosure rate in Illinois was also up 9 percent when compared to the same month one year earlier.

Illinois residents shouldn’t expect foreclosure numbers to fall any time soon, either. According to the Associated Press story, the number of housing foreclosures across the country is expected to rise now that attorneys general in 49 states have reached an historic settlement with five of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders. This settlement lays out foreclosure guidelines that could give banks the confidence to pursue foreclosures more aggressively.

About the only good news for Illinois homeowners was the fact that six other states had higher foreclosure rates in the month. Nevada in January continued to have the highest foreclosure rate in the country. Coming next were Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and Michigan.

Illinois came next, to rank seventh in the country in the number of foreclosure notices filed in January.

That’s the news from a recent story in the Chicago Tribune.

The Tribune reported on the much-followed Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, an index that in November showed housing prices in the Chicago area falling 3.4 percent from the previous month. Chicago housing prices were also down 5.9 percent from a year earlier, the Tribune reported.

Chicago’s drop in housing prices was steeper than those suffered by each of the nation’s largest 20 housing markets save for Atlanta, Seattle, Tampa and Las Vegas, according to the Tribune story.

The Tribune quoted a source from Zillow who said that the problem in the Chicago area is a fundamental one: The supply of homes available in the region far exceeds the demand for these residences.

Until this changes, housing prices will not rise.

High unemployment — though unemployment has been falling — is another issue that negatively impacts home sales. People simply won’t invest in homes if they fear that they might lose their jobs. And when people aren’t buying, the housing supply remains high, forcing prices down.

This is frustrating for home sellers, especially those who bought during the Chicago housing boom, when prices hit their heights. These sellers can expect to sell their residences for less than what they paid for them.

My advice to sellers is simple: They need to price their homes according to what the market says their residences are worth. Buyers today don’t care what sellers paid for their homes four years ago. They only care about what similar homes are selling for today.

It’s news, then, when a critic such as Thornberg tells consumers that now is a good time to buy a house.

And that’s just what Thornberg did in a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune’s real estate columnist Mary Umberger.

The founder of an independent research firm in Los Angeles, Thornberg told Umberger that now is a good time to buy a house, as long as buyers understand that a house is what he called a consumption good, not an investment.

Here’s what Thornberg means: Consumers should buy condominiums and single-family homes for the benefits they bring, stability, shelter, a place to escape to at the end of the day. They should not look at housing as a way to make a quick buck. That’s what happened during the housing boom, and it’s what led to housing prices getting way too high way too quickly.

In today’s housing market — including in Chicago — housing prices have fallen to solid, affordable levels, Thornberg said. At the same time, mortgage interest rates are at record lows, making the act of borrowing mortgage money as affordable as it’s ever been. Add to this the fact that home sellers are ready to negotiate on final sales prices, and you have an environment that’s more than beneficial to home buyers.

I’ve said this many times in this blog, but I’ll repeat myself: This remains a great time to buy a home. If you’ve been hesitating, consider Thornberg’s advice. If a noted housing critic says that this is a good buyer’s market, who are we to argue?