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 the numbers, foreclosures across Illinois rose 17 percent during the first quarter of 2012 when compared to the fourth quarter of last year. Foreclosures in the state also jumped 14 percent when compared to the first quarter of 2011.

In fact, Illinois had the dubious distinction of having the third most foreclosures filings in the country during the first quarter, with its 37,600 properties with foreclosure filings trailing only California and Florida.

RealtyTrac’s March numbers for Illinois weren’t any better. According to the site, one in every 383 Illinois housing units received a foreclosure filing in March. Cook County alone during the month saw 6,950 foreclosure filings.

Foreclosures are bad for everyone. Families going through them suffer great financial loss and even greater emotional turmoil. Banks certainly aren’t thrilled to be stuck with so many homes that they usually have to sell below market value. And then there are other homeowners. When foreclosures dot their neighborhoods, they drag down the values of all nearby homes.

Just look at the average price of a foreclosure property in Illinois, according to RealtyTrac: $121,387. Considering that in March Illinois had 102,068 foreclosure homes, according to the site, that’s a lot of low-cost inventory for buyers to work through.

If you want to sell your home, this isn’t the best news. My advice? If you don’t absolutely have to sell, hold off. If you have no choice, talk with a REALTOR® who knows your neighborhood and can help you set the best possible price for your residence.

The Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court currently holds a pot of about $16 million in surplus funds created after foreclosed homes were re-sold. Those foreclosed homeowners who owed less on their mortgage loans than what these homes were sold for will receive the extra funds.

Of course, not everyone is owed a big payday. Dorothy Brown, clerk of the circuit court, told NBC 5 that one homeowner is owed just 13 cents. Of course, Brown also said that another homeowner is due $400,000.

The problem, though, is tracking down all of the former Chicago homeowners who are owed money. Many of these owners don’t realize that they are owed the money. Many who have suffered through the foreclosure process don’t leave forwarding addresses.

There is a way for Chicago residents who’ve gone through foreclosure to quickly determine if they are owed funds. They simply have to log onto the Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Website and enter their last names, first initials and phone numbers.

Brown told NBC 5 that she wanted to set up the Web site to make life at least a bit easier for those who have lost their residences to foreclosure. After all, these families have already been through an extraordinary amount of stress. Maybe the money they are owed can help at least a bit. Many homeowners who have lost their residences to foreclosure are also saddled with large amounts of credit-card debt and other unpaid bills. Every little bit of extra money, especially in today’s challenging economy, can help.

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?

According to the latest home sales numbers from the Illinois Association of REALTORS®, December, 2011, existing-home sales in Chicago hit 1,536, up 6.4 percent from the 1,444 homes sold in the same month one year earlier.

The news wasn’t as good when it came to the median sales prices of these homes. According to the association’s numbers, the median home sale price for Chicago stood at $156,000 in December of last year. That’s down 6.2 percent when compared to the same month in 2010. Back then, the median sales price of Chicago homes came in at $166,250.

Bob Floss, president of the Chicago Association of REALTORS®, was quoted in the press release accompanying the December numbers as saying that the December rally was a good sign for the future of Chicago housing sales. The numbers give hope that Chicago’s winter and spring home-selling seasons will be strong ones, he said.

Floss, though, expressed concerns about the median sales price of Chicago condominiums and single-family homes. This number shows no sign of rising, and, in fact, continues to fall. Floss pointed to the large number of distressed residential properties on the market: Foreclosures tend to drag down the median sales prices of homes near them.

Until the number of foreclosures falls, don’t expect the median sales price of Chicago residential properties to rise.

The association press release also quotes Loretta Alonzo, president of the Illinois Association of REALTORS®. She says that buyers in December simply found too many good housing deals to pass up.

That’s good news, of course, for sellers trying to move their properties. It’s not great news, though, for sellers trying to get top dollar for their homes. Buyers today simply expect to find bargains on the condos and single-family homes that they purchase.