If you don’t subscribe to our Chicago Real Estate News feed, you may have missed these stories from the past few days:

• Home sales in Chicago were up 33 percent in October from a year earlier, but median home prices were down almost 16 percent, according to the Illinois Association of Realtors. Almost 7,300 condos and single-families sold last month, up from nearly 6,900 in September ’09 and almost 5,400 in October 2008. At the same time, median prices fell from $225,000 to $190,000. The Chicago Association of Realtors used the IAR release to complain once again about restrictive lending guidelines for condos, which the organization believes is keeping people with good credit from being able to buy homes.
• A Circuit Court judge stripped Joseph Freed and Associates of control over Block 37 in the Loop after determining the developer could not fund the project to completion, even as its pedway and first store opened to the public. Bank of America is now in charge of the development, with CB Richard Ellis serving as receiver and The John Buck Company acting as an adviser.
• After seeing its membership and dues dwindle, the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The group also faces a $1.5 million foreclosure suit on its 10,217 square-foot headquarters in Addison.