From Inman News:
KB Home: Orders up, cancellations down
In a regulatory filing, KB Homes reported that new-home orders nearly tripled from the first quarter to the second, to 4,200, while the cancellation rate fell to 27 percent, down from 53 percent in the first quarter.
Schwarzenegger sees California recovery in 2009
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Sunday that [...]

Why do home prices fall slowly, in a down market?
Karl “Chip” Case gives his opinion, in a paper released recently.

Bob Shiller and I have surveyed homebuyers for nearly two decades, and consistent evidence of this stickiness is found in the responses to survey questions. Buyers who sold properties prior to buying in [...]

What a mess.
This week, Lou Barnes covers the two sides of the argument over US interest rates and inflation, US and world.
1930s-style collapse haunts economy
Commentary: Why near-term rate increases are unlikely
By Lou Barnes, Inman News

Mortgages are sticky near 6.5 percent, Treasurys getting most of the flight-to-quality benefit from the stock market dive.
Economic data this week [...]

Massachusetts is once again the top tech-savvy state in the nation beating out California, Texas, and New York. The Milken Institute’s 2008 State Technology and Science Index looked at five major areas before compiling the list below, which included the state’s ability to attract funding, skilled tech workers, and new businesses. Here is the list [...]

The Herald’s Peter Gelzinis gives a big “thumbs up” to the new apartment project currently under construction in South Boston, at the corners of A Street and West Broadway. Soon, hundreds of Bostonians will be living in brand new homes, bringing a sense of vitality and vibrancy to an otherwise moribund area.
Oh, wait, he [...]

The Globe profiles the Seaport District. Or, where the “Seaport District” may someday rise. Plans are for several new mega-billion, multi-use projects to fill the space.
In the meantime, the vast, windblown streets are often lonesome between destinations, making the waterfront feel like an amalgam of disparate elements – convention center, hotel bars, a [...]

So, a lot of ink was spilled when the Census Bureau released data a couple years ago that showed Boston was losing population.
Subsequently, it was discovered that, in fact, population had increased.
Same thing happened on a state-level, if memory serves me correctly.
In fact, Massachusetts has gained population, over the past fifteen years.
However, as a lot [...]

If you read the papers at all, you know that there’s a proposal to levy a new tax on high-end home sales on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The goal is to raise funds to pay for affordable housing construction.
I can’t say whether or not this is a good thing.*
What I love though, is the [...]

The Herald profiles the new FP3 condo project, currently under construction in Boston’s Fort Point Channel neighborhood.
Boston’s Berkeley Investments is positioning its new FP3 condo complex as a hip destination spot in South Boston’s emerging Fort Point/Seaport District.
When the development opens in the next few months, it will feature 97 high-end condos, plus three new [...]

The following information is from the local MLS database, as of June 28, 2008, compared to (June 21, 2008) (and June 23, 2007 – where available).
Total # of condos for sale in the city of Boston: 2,465 (2,489) (2,667)
Average # of days on market: 124 (123) (114)
Number of condos sold (closed) over past 30 days: [...]