Here’s a ranking of the 15 housing markets expected to get hammered next year.
Man, Florida sure was the bad boy of America when it came to subprime-mortgage shenanigans. At least they didn’t take out a second adjustable-rate mortgage on Disney World. We assume that’s the case. Right.

In an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, former hedge fund manager Andy Kessler muses about what’s behind Ben Bernanke’s latest round of $600 billion “quantitative easing”: propping up the real estate market.
“Without another $600 billion floating through the economy, Mr. Bernanke must believe that real estate (residential and commercial) would quickly drop, endangering banks. The [...]

The following real estate charts and graphs are from a newly released 2010 National Association of Realtors Profile of  Home Buyers and Sellers:
2010 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers Highlights
View more presentations from NAR Research.

Sure, the Boston Redevelopment Authority made headlines this week for pulling the plug on the Filene’s project, but they were also busy handing out permits for other developments. These approvals tend to  support the BBJ’s earlier article about the expected boomlet in ground-breaking expected for apartment developments in 2011. As noted in Banker and Tradesman [...]

Attention Boston real estate agents. Doing an open house this weekend? Here are some enjoyable stats from National Association of Realtors:
Less than 1% of buyers said that an open house is how they found the home they purchased.
Only 4% made visiting open houses their first effort in finding a home.
However, 45% did visit open houses during [...]

Click on real estate chart to enlarge.
The chart above are Zillow’s Boston condo values from December 2009 to October 2010.
What are your thoughts? Did we bottom out?

Just reported this morning, the state’s unemployment rate fell to 8.1% from 8.4%, equating to a net gain in jobs to 10,000. It was the steepest one-month decline in unemployment since 1976, according to the Boston Business Journal. Here’s the state’s report.

Click on real estate chart to enlarge.
Zillow home values comparing 10/1/08 with 10/1/10:
Boston average home value 10/1/08 – $359,000
Boston average home value 10/1/10 – $379,000
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Boston South End average home value 10/1/08 – $609,000
Boston South End average home value 10/1/10 – $549,000
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Boston Beacon Hill average home value 10/1/08 – $653,000
Boston Beacon Hill average home value 10/1/10 – $749,000
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Boston Back Bay average home value 10/1/08 – [...]

October data for foreclosures in Mass. shows a steep drop compared to a year ago – but we all know why, don’t we? That’s right, when big banks announced they were temporarily halting foreclosures due to robo-signing issues. The numbers, according to the Warren Group, have foreclosures falling 51 percent in October to 1,127 compared [...]

It’s official: the other shoe has officially fallen. The BRA has said it won’t be extending any permits to Vornado Realty Trust and developer John Hynes for the One Franklin development on the site of the former Filene’s department store in Downtown Crossing.
Perhaps the city just really wanted a shopping-area skating rink all along.
City yanks [...]