Bill and Giuliana Rancic Buy Big House in Hinsdale, and etc.

MonetizeBUYERS: Bill Rancic and Giuliana (DePandi) Rancic
LOCATION: Hinsdale, IL
PRICE: $1,560,000
SIZE: 12,000 (ish) square feet, 7 bedrooms, 9.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: The past few years have been a bit of a real estate whirlwind for celebrity news gossip Giuliana (Depandi) Rancic and her entrepreneurial man-mate Bill Rancic. Since getting married in 2007 the budding young couple have bought and sold a number of properties in both Los Angeles, CA and Chicago, IL including a recently acquired a mansion in a the upscale Chicago suburb of Hinsdale.

Mister Rancic, who once auditioned for that sicko show The Bachelor on which a dozen or so tarted up woman grovel embarrassingly for the affections of a single man, rocketed to fame in 2004 as the winner of the first season of Donald Trump's The Apprentice program. Prior to becoming one of Mister Trump's minions he made boo-coo bucks with an online endeavor called Cigars Around the World. Nowadays Mister Rancic earns an impressive living as a motivational speaker, reality television denizen, real estate developer and the host of a program we've never heard of on the A&E channel called We Mean Business.

American Idol Kelly Clarkson Lists at a Loss

SELLER: Kelly Clarkson
LOCATION: Nashville, TN
PRICE: $1,449,000
SIZE: 4,900 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Yesterday afternoon Your Mama received a covert communique from one of our Music City snitches–this one we call The Nashville House Whore–who gleefully whispered in our big ear that pop-rock singer/songwriter Kelly Clarkson recently listed her residence in Nashville, TN with an asking price of $1,449,000.

Miss Clarkson was, of course, the first contestant to win American Idol. This was way back in 2002, long before that program became the tired and wrung out tee-vee tragedy that it is today. Unlike some of the other winners of the televised singing contest–can you say Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks?–the pint-sized belter has gone on to great commercial success with a couple of platinum albums, world wide tours, and two Grammy Awards.

Morning Floor Plan Porn: Before and After

Listen butter beans, Your Mama is short on time this morning because we have to get out of the house early to go film for The Gossip Queens program on the gay gay gay Logo channel. But before we git on our hobby horse and ride, we thought we'd leave y'all with a little New York City floor plan porn to ponder.

A man named Steven Ells, the co-founder and CEO of the ballooning Chipotle "Mexican" food franchise, has been making real estate headlines in New York City for the last year or so with his increasingly fat real estate portfolio of properties located in various areas of the West Village neighborhood of New York.

The burrito bigwig not only owns and a full floor loft style spread on Waverly Place–bought in March 2008 for $5,650,000 and currently on the market with an asking price of $6,250,000–he also possesses a speck-tack-u-ler Steven Harris designed townhouse on Jane Street that he snatched up in early 2008 for $13,400,000.

Mortgage Rates Update: Mortgage Rates Hit New Record Lows

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)s recent Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending on October 1st, application for mortgages purchase homes rose 2.4 percent last week in comparison to the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist, stated that the increase in purchase activity was led by a 17.2 percent increase in FHA applications, and noted that the conventional purchase mortgages saw an increase of 3.6 percent for the week. All in all, these types of mortgages rose 9.3 percent, while refinances dropped 2.5 percent.

Government and private mortgage lenders have increased standards due to the tough economy. A lot of banks and financial firms are planning to reduce their risk, meaning consumers with an ability to pay their mortgages on time have higher chances to acquire a loan.

Meanwhile, the agency said the interest rates for 30-year fixed and 15-year fixed mortgages fell once again last week to new record lows. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 4.25 percent from 4.38 percent and the 15-year decreased to 3.73 percent from 3.77 percent.