A run down of the Wall Street mess, from — you’ll never guess it — Rolling Stone magazine:
There are plenty of people who have noticed, in recent years, that when they lost their homes to foreclosure or were forced into bankruptcy because of crippling credit-card debt, no one in the government was there to rescue [...]

Cheryl Bliss Waxman, the listing agent for 45 Province St. in Boston’s Downtown Crossing, said she has non-refundable deposits on 30 percent of the 138-unit development that is expected to open in May.

The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G. It ran in The New York Times’s op-ed section.
Dear Mr. Liddy,
It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from [...]

From the Boston Globe:
The number of properties going under agreement – the prelude to a final sale – is on the upswing, with 418 deals struck last week, compared to 314 on Feb. 7, according to data provided by the Greater Boston Real Estate Board.
To read the full story: Real estate inventory on the rise

John:
I read your blog regularly (and occasionally post comments), and was thinking that one of my recent blog posts might be of interest to your readers. It discussed a flaw in the American mortgage system that Lester Thurow pointed out to me – that mortgages aren’t tied to future streams of incomes and how this [...]

From Banker & Tradesman
Bank-owned property sales made up more than 10 percent of Massachusetts’ single-family home sales transactions in February, approximately five times as many as the same month two years ago, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.
Single-family home sales fell 14.6 percent to 1,825 in February from 2,138 in February [...]

According to MLS in 2009 (1/1/09 – 3/24/09) only three condos sold in the Boston Midtown area.
1. 151 Tremont Street # 16 C
Selling broker: Tracy Campion of Campion & Company
2. 151 Tremont Street # 8H
Selling broker: Vilma Dassoni of Ford Realty Inc
3. 3 Avery Street #11 F
Selling broker: William Montero of Warren [...]

It’s not as bad as it looks.
Number of Boston condo sales from 1/1/08 – 3/23/08 – 750
Number of Boston condo sales from 1/1/09 – 3/23/09 – 524
Sales data from LINK

Nearly 25 percent of adults say they plan to purchase a home in the next five years and half of those (53.5 percent) will be first-time home buyers, according to a survey commissioned by Move Inc., operator of Realtor.com.
More than 18 percent cite the $8,000 tax credit as a motivating factor. Potential home buyers with [...]

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says first-time buyers accounted for half of all home sales last month, with activity concentrated in lower price ranges.
“Because entry level buyers are shopping for bargains, distressed sales accounted for 40 to 45 percent of transactions in February,” he says. “Our analysis shows that distressed homes typically are selling for [...]