This falls into the realm of news we expected. The Warren Group reported that foreclosures in Massachusetts fell 25 percent in November from the prior month. This is the side effect of the various investigations into the robo-signing scandal. The drop from a year earlier is almost 40 percent. Just so everyone doesn’t forget, a [...]

Reggie Miiddleton, claims that the Case Shiller index is highly flawed in tracking downward price movements, because it purposefully omits cetain data. This means that those price drops that are being shown by the Case Shiller index are actually highly optimistic.

A Chelsea-based developer hopes to convert the former St. Dominic Savio Preparatory High School, the Boston Globe’s “Your Town” website reports. The developer, Coliseum Investment Group, wants to convert the building to about 30 condo units. But plans are still in the early stages; only initial talks with the BRA have been held, and community [...]

According to MLS between January 1, 2010 – December 28, 2010, seven Back Bay single-family homes sold:
Average Back Bay single-family home list price: $4,630,429.00
Average Back Bay single-family home sales price: $3,837,429.00

The Case-Shiller home price index for October is out, and Boston prices fell 1.2 percent from September. For the year, over all the Boston market is down very slightly by 0.2 percent. This puts Boston in the number 5 position in the market over all — only four other markets remain positive for the year [...]

From Thomas Grillo’s report today in the Boston Herald summing up the 2010 Massachusetts real estate market:
“The Boston-area housing market is like the little engine that could. Repeat sale prices (are) down about 14 percent in Boston (from their peak), while other cities in California, Florida and Nevada are down by 50 percent.”–Karl Case
“If you [...]

Extending the Bush Tax cuts for the top percentile of wealthy Americans has been one of the most hotly debated topics in Washington in 2010.
But how many wealthy people are there in the U.S., how much do they make and where do they live? And most importantly – where does Massachusetts rank?
According the [...]

The following are the number of Boston condos under agreement per each Boston neighborhood:
Boston, MA – Back Bay – 43
Boston, MA – Beacon Hill – 10
Boston, MA – Charlestown – 9
Boston, MA – Dorchester – 35
Boston, MA – East Boston – 11
Boston, MA – Fenway – 4
Boston, MA – Hyde Park – 4
Boston, MA – [...]

Overall, Tuesday will be the most important day of the week, but we may see some volatility any day. The thin trading that we will probably see the latter part of the week often creates larger than usual fluctuations in the major indexes. Despite last week’s shortened schedule, we saw plenty of movement in mortgage rates. This week likely will be the same as investors look to make year-end adjustments to their portfolios. Accordingly, I recommend keeping in contact with your mortgage professional if still floating an interest rate and closing in the immediate future.

bc@smarterborrowing.com 617.771.5021

As everyone in Boston dons the heavy boots and grabs the shovel for the first snow workout of the year, just remember that Mass. law now makes snow removal a priority. As Richard Vetstein’s Massachusetts Real Estate Law Blog recently reminded everyone, the law changed earlier this year when a lawsuit ruling upended the old [...]