The “Your Town” website for Back Bay reports on the year-to-year improvement of Newbury Street, where about 30 new businesses have moved in or signed leases since July 2009. Among the new and notable stores that have opened recently are the Converse Store and Jack Wills.

The news is out for November unemployment numbers for Massachusetts. Unfortunately they edged up – but only slightly – from 8.1 percent to 8.2 percent. That translated to 6,100 jobs lost in the leisure and hospitality sector.

Click on the Boston real estate chart to enlarge. Looking at how often people search on Google for the term “Boston real estate” gives us a ballpark idea of the general level of interest/demand people have in Boston condos and townhomes. Hmm…I don’t think I like this chart.

“If you don’t own a home, buy one. If you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home.” John Paulson (September 2010), Wall Street contrarian and hero of the book, The Greatest Trade Ever.

Banker & Tradesman pulls out some Boston data from a recent Trulia report. Year on year not much changed though. So far in December 37 percent of listings have sold at reduced prices, a scant difference over 2009′s 35 percent. The average price reduction was 8 percent..

Our friend and guest blogger Brian Cav notes on Twitter that rates are inching up again, and “this is becoming an everyday thing.” On his website, Smarter Borrowing, he has a handy 30-day interactive tracking chart for rates. The trend lines are marching steadily up. Go to his “Current Rates” box and click on “view [...]

Freddie Mac finally fixed an online calculator that’s supposed to help people choose between renting and buying a home. From Planet Money: Kosoff used to work as an economist for Freddie Mac’s “Mission Department.” His job was to promote homeownership, and he was really good at it. He managed an online calculator designed to help [...]

Google Maps has an interesting and (somewhat) new feature that allows users to find Boston real estate foreclosures for free: 1.) Go to http://maps.google.com 2.) In the upper right corner of the map click the “more” button and select “real estate” 3.) A menu appears in the upper left pane of the web page with “for sale” homes [...]

An AP report summarizes the finding of a congressional watchdog report on the Obama administration’s central anti-foreclosure effort (HAMP). The Congressional Oversight Panel doesn’t mince words, and says the Treasury, which is overseeing the program, has failed to bother to measure program results, making it “nearly impossible” to measure success (or failure) of the program. [...]

The curious trend in Massachusetts continues: sales volumes decline while median prices inched up. November sales of single-family homes fell 32 percent compared to the same month last year. But … remember that in 2009 people were taking advantage of the homebuyer tax credit. Data also shows that median prices keep creeping upward. The median [...]