The commercial real estate website Citybizlist is reporting that contracts for future commercial construction through August now put construction up 6 percent over 2009 numbers. That’s good economic news for the area – and the struggling commercial market.
Citing data from McGraw-Hill Construction, a big inflow of contracts in August ($236.4 million) for the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy metropolitan [...]

The developers of the former site of Filene’s in Downtown Crossing are crying “uncle” and putting the parcel up for sale — just as the city of Boston is pulling its permits.
Whether they were pushed or jumped is beside the point now. The developers, NY-based Vornado Realty Trust and John B. Hynes III, hope to [...]

What? Massachusetts not one of the top 10 most-socialist states in the U.S. (as measured by percentage of state GDP)? Even with the People’s Republic of Cambridge? Well, it’s apparently true. We’re not as socialist as even Sarah Palin’s Alaska. See all the stats: The 10 Most Socialist States In America from the Business Insider.

You may have heard about actor Randy Quaid and wife getting busted for squatting on a property they once owned, but I bet you didn’t know “mansion squatting” is going mainstream.
An article on MSNBC’s site by Bill Briggs documents the trend. Apparently, with so many multimillion dollar, large properties sitting vacant, squatters know these properties [...]

The Warren Group tallied up the number of foreclosure petitions in Massachusetts in August, and the number was the highest in more than a year. Petitions rose to 2,713 — a 13.2 percent increase from the same month last year. Over all, foreclosures in 2010 are expected to surpass 2008’s record of more than 12,000.
In [...]

We hinted earlier this week that the long-dreamed-of 6.3 million square-foot mega development known as Seaport Square was moving forward. Now it’s official, according to the Boston Business Journal’s Real Estate Roundup blog, with the BRA giving approval some time Tuesday night. Work on the mixed-use development (commercial, retail, residential) may start in early 2011.

At a townhall meeting, CNBC’s John Harwood asked President Obama this housing question: Does the housing market need to “find its bottom and then get back up?”
The president gave a standard “on one hand, but on the other hand” type answer:
Well, this was the argument that Rick Santelli made. This is when he went on [...]

“Organized crime in America takes is over forty billion dollars a year - and spends very little on office supplies.” —Woody Allen

There are two recessions going on.
One is gradually ending. This is the cyclical recession, we have them all the time, they come and they go. Not fun, but not permanent.
The other one, I fear, is here forever. Read why on Seth Godin’s blog.

Boston.com’s new neighborhood reporting site for Back Bay reports that there are eight properties there labeled by city inspectional teams as “problem properties.” City teams have been combing the city and documenting “problem properties” ever since the huge warehouse fire in Roxbury last month. So far, nearly 150 properties have been identified. Failure to fix [...]