From Realtor.org:
In a report for Forbes.com, Hotpads.com, an aggregator of rental listings, produced a price-to-earnings spread for each ZIP code in the country’s 40 largest cities by comparing rental costs with buying costs for similar properties, based on number of bedrooms, location, and price per square foot.
A price-to-earnings ratio, or P/E, expresses how much a [...]

Hello.
The new layout is intended to make the design more appealing and to encourage more people to contact me about being their buyer’s agent. The blog entries remain readily available in the middle column, but the other two columns should help out viewers making their first visits to the site.
Three columns you ask? [...]

Time to take a load off.

Photo courtesy of Matt Byrne

It’s summer intern time at all the Boston papers, I guess.
From the BBJ:
“We’re not seeing those dips (in Boston),” said Paul Sacco, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Lodging Association. “I think Boston is resilient.”
Sacco said some hoteliers are seeing slight increases in occupancy. “It’s not a win fall of any sort,” he said, “But [...]

Two high-profile musicals have been nixed from the fall Boston theater schedule.
Brigadoon was scheduled to move into the Colonial theater during a pre-Broadway tryout (remember those?). It has been “postponed”, according to the producers because of “the lack of an appropriate Broadway theatre in spring 2009.”
Plans to premiere the New York City bound Nice [...]

Next to the Apple store on Boylston Street, in Boston’s Back Bay.

I need a good night’s sleep as much as the next guy (more, even), but I was kind of hoping for something a little more exciting and I don’t know … upscale? to go into this spot.
(Anyone remember when there was a mattress store [...]

How do you help a homeowner who can’t keep up his or her payments on a home loan?
You find him or her another loan, is what you do.
So that the borrower can default on that loan, too.
At least that’s what pessimists are saying will happen following Congressional approval of the new “housing rescue” bill, which [...]

What’s a townhouse, what’s a rowhouse?
Row house, town house, brownstone – By James McCown, The Boston Globe
It is a question that has vexed real estate brokers and lovers of urban architecture for generations: What’s the difference between a town house, a row house, and a brownstone? Boston native Kevin D. Murphy, whose book ”The American [...]

UPDATE:
I just received an email from the developer. Apparently, B&T was incorrect in what it reported.
Eastat is developing 250,000 sf of office and 174 parking spaces. We are not touching the historic Jacob Wirth building at all and it will be preserved, protected and remain operational. The project you describe was the pervious proposal [...]

SUFFOLK COUNTY
2007 June #Sales: 791
2008 June #Sales: 635
Difference: -19.72%
2007 YTD #Sales: 3450
2008 YTD #Sales: 2535
Difference: -26.52%
2007 June Median Price: $360,000
2008 June Median Price: $381,800
Difference: +6.06%
2007 YTD Median Price: $350,000
2008 YTD Median Price: $365,000
Difference: +4.29%
And, condo sales for Massachusetts as a whole:
2007 June #Sales: 2982
2008 June #Sales: 2288
Difference: -23.27%
2007 YTD #Sales: 13733
2008 YTD #Sales: 9844
Difference: -28.32%
2007 [...]