May 20 and 21 will be an exciting time for Chicago. It’s the first time that a U.S. city other than Washington has hosted a NATO summit. And the event will certainly receive its fair share of attention. According to the official Web site of the summit, about 2,000 journalists from across the world are expected to gather in Chicago to report on this historic event.

This is why I love living in Chicago. And it’s why so many homeowners do, too. Things happen in Chicago. It’s an important city not only in the United States but on the world stage. As a result, real estate here remains valuable, even during the tough economic times the city and country are now experiencing.

Of course, not everyone is happy about the upcoming NATO summit. Residents are worried about possible terrorism attacks. Others are worried about increased traffic, while others fret about road closings and increased difficulty in getting around the city.

I understand the concerns. People still have to work and move around Chicago as the summit meetings are taking place. But we have to remember: This is an historic event. It’s a great honor for the city to have been chosen to host these meetings.

Maybe veteran news reporter Walter Jacobson sums it up best: In a recent column on the website of CBS 2 News Jacobson says that it’s time for Chicago residents to stop complaining about the inconvenience caused by the NATO summit. As Jacobson rightly says, it’s OK for residents to wonder if this is a good use of taxpayer dollars or if protests surrounding the summit will turn ugly. But to worry about blocked streets and crowded roads seems a bit childish. After all, we’ll only be inconvenienced for three days.

But history? History will remember this event long after all those world leaders leave our city.

Home values, of course, continue to fall. Foreclosures are rising. Homeowners are struggling to sell their single-family homes and condominiums.

Still, many renters aspire to the traditional American dream of homeownership. If that holds true today, in what might be the worst housing market most of us have ever seen, it speaks well to the true power of what owning a home means in this country.

According to a recent story by the Wall Street Journal, a survey from PulteGroup, a large national home builder, found that among those renters who plan to purchase a home in the future 60 percent have “increased their intent” to do so from a year ago.

This means that a growing number of surveyed apartment dwellers are considering jumping into the housing market.

This is good news for owners planning to put their condominiums or single-family homes on the market. The more renters who enter the housing market, the greater the demand will be for for-sale residences. And when demand rises, so, finally, will housing prices.

Of course, the results of this study don’t change the fact that the housing market, even in such solid markets as Chicago, is still in a slump. It will take a long time for demand to rise enough to push up sluggish home values.

The PulteGroup survey even points out some of the current woes of the housing market. The survey, for instance, found that more than half of renters aren’t buying homes because they don’t have enough money to come up with a down payment. The survey found, too, that nearly 30 percent of renters believe that it is cheaper to rent than it is to buy, a fact that is preventing this group of renters from jumping into the housing market.

Finally, the survey found that more than 20 percent of renters were too worried about their employment status to consider investing in a home.

The good news, then, is that many renters do aspire to become homeowners. The bad news? It might take them a while to reach this dream.

That’s good news for home sellers. And the REALTORS® association trumpets the numbers in a press release that maintains that the housing market across the country is firmly in recovery mode.

But there’s a reason that this housing recovery – and sales are increasing in Chicago, too – feels so hollow. While the number of condominiums and single-family homes selling is on the rise, the prices of these sales are not.

In fact, the latest numbers from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller housing price index indicate that housing prices across the country are beginning to fall. The news is especially gloomy for Chicago, where in February, according to the Case-Shiller numbers, housing prices in the area fell to a 12-year low.

So that’s why it’s so hard for home sellers to get excited over the good news coming from the REALTOR® association’s Pending Home Sales Index. Yes, homes are selling in greater numbers. But owners who purchased their residences during the housing boom years – say, 2004 through 2006 – are taking big losses when they sell homes now. According to Case-Shiller, Chicago-area housing prices have fallen by more than 37 percent since September of 2006.

There are plenty of reasons why housing prices continue to fall. First, and most importantly, they simply rose too high too fast during the days of the housing boom. That kind of price growth was unsustainable. Prices simply couldn’t have kept rising at that rate. Today, the housing market is in a period of correction. Housing values are falling to a more reasonable level, something that feels particularly painful to homeowners who spent so much for their condos and single-family homes just six years ago.

Then there are the foreclosures glutting the housing market today, both in Chicago and across the country. These distressed properties, which generally saw at prices below market level, drag down the values of homes around them. This results in a steady decrease in home prices in entire neighborhoods.

The difficult truth is that Chicago and the rest of the nation have a long way to go before the fallout from the housing crisis clears. And even as home sales across the country rise, there’s no denying that this housing recovery hasn’t been an enjoyable one for many homeowners.

But buyers might face at least one hurdle in their efforts to land a new home: The number of condominiums and single-family homes on the market in Chicago and other large metropolitan areas has fallen significantly.

According to a story by Chicago Agent Magazine, the number of homes available for sale in major metropolitan areas was down 20.4 percent in early April when compared to the same period one year earlier.

The company HousingTracker, working with the National Association of REALTORS®, analyzed listing data from 54 metropolitan areas to come to its conclusion.

What does this mean for home shoppers? Basically, they have fewer condos and single-family homes from which to choose. It might not be quite as easy, then, for buyers to skip over one dream house and expect to find another one just as perfect for them and their family.

Sellers, though, shouldn’t get too excited over these numbers. This still remains, in Chicago and across the country, a definite buyers’ market. Even if inventory has fallen — and there are some doubts about the complete accuracy of the National Association of REALTORS®/HousingTracker numbers — it certainly hasn’t dropped by enough to give sellers any significant edge in today’s residential real estate market.

If you’re selling, you’re still going to have to price your home aggressively if you hope to receive any solid offers. And you’re going to have to do everything in your power to make sure that your home shows well, something that includes removing extra furniture, taking down most of your family photos and memorabilia, boarding your pets during showings and anything else that gives your home an advantage.

Life hasn’t been nearly as rosy for sellers as it has been for buyers recently. The dropping inventory is a sliver of good news for struggling sellers. But home sellers shouldn’t expect the pendulum to swing from a buyers’ market to a sellers’ market any time soon.

According to a recent story by Crain’s Chicago Business, mega-wealthy investor Buffett recently debuted a program to finance low-income housing in the Chicago area.

The Crain’s story says that the new venture will first provide funding for a nearly $29 million center in the Chicago suburb of Lansing designed to serve senior citizens who rely on Medicaid.

The St. Anthony Supportive Living Facility would operate as a supportive living facility, meaning that it would provide meals, housekeeping and help with medications for the low-income senior citizens residing there.

I enjoy reading stories like this. It gives me yet more evidence that savvy investors recognize that housing in Chicago and its suburbs is a smart place to put their dollars. It’s true that Chicago housing values have dropped during the Great Recession and its slow recovery period. That’s true, though, of the vast majority of major metropolitan areas across the country.

What matters, though, is the long-term value of Chicago real estate. During the housing boom too many people became deluded; they thought they could purchase condominiums or single-family homes in neighborhoods like Lincoln Square, Lincoln Park and Lakeview, hold onto them for less than a year and then sell them for big profits.

This worked briefly. But it isn’t happening today. That’s because real estate was never meant to be a get-rich-quick scheme. Real estate is a different kind of investment. First, it provides buyers with tangible benefits: It’s a roof over their heads, shelter from the outside world, a place for families to grow. Secondly, real estate has historically increased in value over the long term. This means that homeowners who held onto their properties for 10 years or longer have historically made a profit when they sold.

I believe that Chicago real estate is still a wise long-term investment. I can’t guarantee that home values here will again rise. No one can. But just look at the move made by Buffett. If he believes in Chicago housing, who are we to argue?

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.

Those days are gone.

A recent story in the Chicago Sun-Times detailed the dwindling growth seen by Kendall County, a formerly fast-growing county about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.

During the housing boom, the population of this county had more than doubled. From 2000 to 2010, it ranked as the fastest-growing county in the United States.

Today, though, grown has fizzled in Kendall County, according to the Sun-Times story. In 2011, the county’s population grew by just 1 percent.

The reasons are obvious: The housing boom ended, and home buyers realized that life is easier if you live near where you work. That 50-mile commute two times a day to and from Chicago is no easy trek. Secondly, gas prices have soared. That has made the commute to Chicago not only tiresome, but costly.

Today, buyers are more frequently choosing to purchase homes in urban areas, such as the many desirable neighborhoods of Chicago. They want neighborhoods in which they can walk to public transportation, movie theaters, retailers, restaurants and grocery stores.

That’s what Chicago offers: exciting, walkable neighborhoods.

That’s why I always tell my buyers that Chicago remains a great city in which to buy a home. People want to live in Chicago neighborhoods such as Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square and Lakeview because of all the amenities they offer. That’s not going to change, even as the housing market continues to fight through its current slowdown.

What will happen to the far-flung counties such as Kendall County? No one knows for sure, but don’t expect their populations to soar any time soon. Many of today’s buyers are looking for a new type of living experience, one that far-off suburban areas just can’t provide.

But increasingly buyers today want to live near baseball fields, gyms, parks, ice arenas and other recreational amenities.

The Chicago Tribune recently ran a story taking a look at this trend.

The story highlights examples of several buyers who chose their Chicago residences largely because they were located near everything from baseball fields to fitness centers to city parks. The story leads off, for example, with a family that moved to the Lexington Square housing development in the Bridgeport neighborhood in part because the development stands just a mile from U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox. One of the buyers is a long-time White Sox fan and can now watch games at the park from his home’s rooftop balcony.

Of course, being near U.S. Cellular Field wasn’t the only reason this particular buyer bought the condo. And recreational amenities, though a selling point, are rarely the sole reason why buyers purchase any home.

But neighborhoods, and the amenities they boast, remain important factors for buyers. This is especially true in challenging economic times. Those homes that best hold their value are those that are located in desirable neighborhoods, places that are home to a mix of restaurants, shops, parks, schools, theaters and bars. Neighborhoods with high walkability factors — residents can get to grocery stores, coffee shops and clothing stores without jumping in their cars — tend to attract a greater number of buyers.

This is important information for buyers. At resale time, homeowners want every advantage that they can get. A walkable neighborhood with plenty of amenities ranks as one of the most important.

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.

That’s the question asked by a recent story in the Chicago Tribune. And like most housing-related matters today, the answer isn’t clear.

In a short sale, banks agree to allow homeowners to sell their residences for less than what they owe on their mortgage loans. This helps homeowners who need to move their homes move quickly; it’s easier to sell a residence, after all, if you can price it lower. Many homeowners who go the short sale route are in danger of falling into foreclosure. For the banks, a short sale is a better alternative; even though they’ll still lose money on the sale, banks won’t have to go through the expense and hassle of taking over a home through the foreclosure process and then have to sell it on their own.

Not all struggling homeowners, though, want to go through a short sale. Many would instead prefer that their banks lower the principal balance on their mortgage loans, leaving these owners with a smaller monthly mortgage payment. Others might fight a foreclosure action in court. Still others will simply stop paying their mortgage payments and live in their homes for free for months or longer until their banks finally foreclosure on their homes.

Banks obviously prefer short sales to either of these options. It’s why several banks are actually providing cash incentives to encourage struggling homeowners to sell their residences through short sales.

According to the Tribune story, some sellers are nabbing incentives of as much as $35,000 from their banks to close a short sale.

Whether this is a trend that continues remains to be seen. But homeowners who are considering a short sale should ask their REALTORS®. Some of the country’s largest lenders, such as Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Ally Financial and JP Morgan Chase, are offering short-sale incentives.