Analysts say: The end (of declines) is near. While new home sales show signs of stabilizing as builders cut back on building and boom-bloated inventories are slowly absorbed, prices of both new and existing homes are still being dragged down by a flood of foreclosures. Still, the experts were optimistic that the federal government’s efforts [...]

Daily newspaper circulation continues its seemingly unstoppable slide, and the Boston Globe once again has been hit particularly hard. According to audited figures reported by the trade magazine Editor & Publisher, weekday circulation of the Globe for the past six months has fallen 13.6 percent, to 302,638. On Sundays, the Globe has fallen 11.2 percent, [...]

According to MLS, South Boston presently has 157 condos for sale priced under $400,000.00
View Boston condos priced under $400,000.00

Real estate agents have been reporting to me that yesterday’s open houses were “busy with wall to wall people.” I took the day off so I can’t confirm.
What about buyers or sellers, what did you see?
View today’s new Boston condos for sale

North End condo prices comparing 1st quarter results from 2003 through 2009.
North End average condo sales prices
2003 – $417,253.00
2004 – $511,479.00 +22.58%
2005 – $459,842.00 -10.10%
2006 – $395,129.00 -14.07%
2007 – $518,897.00 +30.06%
2008 – $391,518.00 -23.81%
2009 – $495,618.00 +26.59%
View Boston condos including the North End

“Give me a one-handed economist! All my economists say, On the one hand on the other.”
–Harry Truman
On the one hand…
It looks like the median home price in metro Boston is bottoming out, at least temporarily.
Let’s look at some of the evidence on the one hand ….
* Sunday open houses are busy again.
* Back Bay prices [...]

“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith

The Northeast recorded the worst home sales and price declines of all regions in the country in March, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday, as layoffs exert a drag on the area’s housing markets.
Northeast home sales dropped 20 percent last month from the year before, and median sales price tumbled 18 percent to $231,700. [...]

The worst of the economic crisis is over, according to U.S. officials speaking at a financial conference Friday at Vanderbilt University.
Frank Nothaft, the chief economist for Freddie Mac, said housing sales have just about hit bottom and a third of home sales are now foreclosed properties.
Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, [...]

Before you buy or rent a condo in Allston or Brighton you may want to read today’s Boston Herald.
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