I was at Borders, today, looking for magazines on watches (there were seven) and antique toys (sold out). So, I spent an hour there and was about to check out, but the line was like twenty people long. I returned the magazines to the carousel and was about to leave, when a client called. We [...]

I received the following in an email from the sales office at HarborView at the NavyYard. If you haven’t seen HarborView, it’s time to take a look as construction is rapidly progressing with new HarborView homes ready for a late summer occupancy! The exterior of the building has been completed, and this spring the HarborWalk [...]

In my quest to write as many grouchy entries I can in one day, let me just say this – don’t believe anything you read quoting data put out by ForeclosuresMass.com. I think they play around with the numbers, basically just so they can generate traffic to their website and business for themselves (not that [...]

The Globe is out today with this story: High costs, complicated regulatory and tax structures, and stiff competition for back-office jobs from low-cost areas in the United States and overseas threaten Boston’s longtime position as a center of the financial services industry, according to a report to be released today. The report was issued by [...]

If I was in the business of making predictions, I’d stick to college basketball scores and Oscar best actress awards. Not making bets on where a developer will build (or, the direction of the real estate market, for that matter). Steve Bailey feels otherwise, apparently. What Joe Fallon, the latest in a line of would-be [...]

I’m a fan of tearing down Boston’s City Hall. I’m not a fan of replacing it with one on the waterfront. Too difficult to get to, is my main complaint. The Mayor appears to be moving forward, regardless of what his constituents (or the City Council) think. What will the new building and public plaza [...]

In the midst of all the media coverage of the subprime lending debacle, comes this interesting piece of information: [O]n an unadjusted basis compared with the same week one year ago, [mortgage loan] applications were up 16.6 percent. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 45.1 percent of total applications from 45.3 percent the [...]

Big developments going down in Dorchester. The Red Line’s Ashmont station is being fixed up. Across Peabody Square, new owners of the Ashmont Grill have been making a lot of diners happy. Now, those same owners have made their next move. Chef-restaurateur Chris Douglass will open a “pizza and pasta concept” in The Carruth. The [...]

Another interesting piece of information out of Bankrate.com’s mortgage loan survey. Most renters are not staying out of the housing market for fear that prices will go down; instead 40 percent said the main obstacle holding them back from a purchase was that they didn’t have enough money to afford a home, according to our [...]

A stunning 34 percent of homeowners don’t know what type of mortgage they have, according to a new survey done by Bankrate.com. Details forthcoming, this afternoon. Not much going on in the real estate world, which accounts for the lack of posts. Sorry.