The Federal Reserve has finalized its rules banning lender-paid bonuses for mortgage brokers and loan officers who get borrowers to accept a higher interest rate than necessary. These bonuses sometimes are called rebates, or referred to by the technical term yield spread premiums. Brokers can use them to cover borrowers’ closing costs, so a homeowner [...]

The Boston Business Journal reported that another W condo project is going into foreclosure: The New York private equity firm with the servicing rights for the W Atlanta-Downtown hotel and condo tower is moving ahead with foreclosure on the property. The high-profile hotel and condo is a key piece of Allen Plaza near Centennial Park. [...]

Santelli is sick of the government trying to prop up house prices, and I’m with him on this one.

In the old real estate world, there was one word that used to be the Superman rule: location, location, location. Just about anybody — the informed and uninformed — could buy a Boston condo in a good location and easily make money by flipping, selling or refinancing the home, sometimes after just a short ownership. [...]

This is not good…well, at least not for me… Last month, 3,014 single-family homes were sold in Massachusetts, compared to 4,320 for the same month last year – a stunning 30 percent drop – as the $8,000 federal tax credit expired and historically low mortgage interest rates failed to boost sales. There was one bright [...]

With the influx of money from Russia and the Middle East, London has become the premier destination for luxury real estate. Read how this penthouse sold for $220 million. A six-bedroom penthouse at London’s posh One Hyde Park development has just sold for a record-breaking £140 million, or about $220 million, making it the most [...]

From CNBC: US ‘Virtually Certain’ to Fall Into A New Recession: Rosenberg The risks of a double-dip recession—if we ever got out of the first one—are actually a lot higher than people are talking about right now,” [David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff] said. “I think that it’s almost a foregone conclusion, a virtual [...]

August 14, 1945, on that day, the Japanese surrender in World War II was announced, a sailor grabbed a nurse in the middle of Time Square, bent her backed and kissed her. Now for the rest of the story: Nurse Tells of Storied Kiss. No, Not That Nurse.