Boston Single-family home sales
Comparing Boston, Massachusetts single-family home sales from January 1st through November 27th.
The number of Boston single-family home sales 2010 – 814
Boston single- family home sales in ‘09 (Jan – Nov 27th) – 823
Boston single- family home sales in ‘08 (Jan – Nov 27th) – 849
Boston single- family home sales in ‘07 (Jan [...]

First the good news: The larger U.S. banks are coming back, and the banking system as a whole is slowly getting healthier.
According to  FDIC’s latest report.  81% of banks were profitable in the third quarter — the highest percentage since the middle of 2008, before Lehman went bust and everything fell apart.
Now the bad news: The number [...]

Yay. Free parking in downtown Boston Fri. and Sat., but … there is a two-hour limit (booo). Still, it’s always welcome. Four hours would be a lot more useful, though. Just an idea. Hello, City Hall? Hello? (cue sound of crickets chirping).

South Boston Mortgage Broker
As Universal Hub reports today, a South Boston mortgage broker will do jail time and be fined $100,000 in a scheme to defraud investors in Boston real estate. The UH sums it up:
According to the AG’s office, Arrington submitted fraudulent mortgage applications to lenders for Boston Equity Investments, which brokered deals between [...]

Well, we knew mortgage rates couldn’t keep going down forever. Freddie Mack said the rates on 30-year fixed rose to 4.4% from 4. 39%. Two weeks ago they hit the lowest rates since 1971. 15-year loans rose also to 3.77% from 3.76% – up from two weeks ago when they were at 3.57%.
Market watcher Don [...]

Some Thanksgiving trivia:
In the U.S, we eat 300 million turkeys per year. About a 1/3 of them are consumed in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, U.S. isn’t the largest consumer of turkey. According to BBC Thanksgiving quiz, Israel consumes more turkey per capita than the U.S.
Thanksgiving Trivia:http://flowingdata.com/2010/11/25/happy-turkey-day/

Luxury Real Estate Reviews
Think it’s hard to write a real estate blog? Consider this website: Lavish Property. The site features pictures of luxury real estate for sale across the US, Canada and England, complete with reviews and comments by the blogger — 13-year-old Cole Perkins of Hershey, Pa. Here’s his take on a Massachusetts property [...]

The US Attorney’s office wants it made plain that Massachusetts condo associations that go after families for such “offenses” as their children playing wiffle ball in common areas can’t levy unfair fines on those families. A Methuen condo association leveled fines of more than $500 to family residents for common-areas violations such as children playing [...]

Luxury Real Estate
Here’s a look at some of the kitchens in celebrity homes for sale, including homes of Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, and Sheryl Crow. And Tracy Morgan appears to really like the stainless steel look. Worst kitchen: Kelly Clarkson’s lawn-clippings-green cabinets. Blech.

Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported:
Inventory and Days on Market:
The inventory of single-family homes as of October 31, 2010 increased 13.0 percent from October 2009 (27,204 listings in 2009 to 30,860 listings in 2010) which translates into 11.2 months of supply in October 2010.  This is up from 7.1 months of supply last year and up [...]