The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book reported continued improvements in the Boston and New England economies. The high-tech and software sectors are doing particularly well, along with manufacturing and staffing-services firms. Even commercial real estate is starting to see a thaw in business. But (and there’s always a ‘but’) your favorite sector isn’t doing all that [...]

“Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it.” —Richard Lamm

Did you know that 54,000 new jobs were created last month & half them were McDonalds jobs? And that hiring probably wouldn’t have happened if Mickey D’s hadn’t been given a waiver from Obamacare. Is this the recovery Obama is talkng about? File Under: I’ll take fries with that.

The Herald is reporting that its current 6.2 acre site at 300 Harrison Ave. could be developed into 262 luxury apartments and 64,000 square feet of retail space. The Herald, which no longer prints its paper at its plant on Harrison Avenue, had previously teamed up with National Development to come up with a development [...]

It’s official: Harvard refuses to give the U.S. housing market a passing grade. At least the rental market is pretty strong, the report notes, though we know more than a few people who don’t view higher rents as a sign of a healthy market. File under: Housing 101

Okay, you’ll enjoy this one. Real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran was interviewed by Matt Lauer a few days ago. Corcoran stated that potential buyers should be aware that some real estate brokers may go overboard in marketing their listings. She also made comments that potential buyers should question square footage, be aware of wide angle [...]

I presently obtained a listing for two Beacon Hill buildings for sale. The first one is $1.5M and the second one is $1.7M. Both have five floors and are walk-through units. My first showing is tomorrow at 2:00pm. If you’d like more information or schedule a showing please call Linda Mitrano on her cell at [...]

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I’m not a big supporter of Sunday Open Houses. If you’re a Boston condo seller, watch this so-called real estate training video and you’ll understand why.

I’ve had several requests that I bring back the comment posts back to the top of the homepage. I’m going to have my tech person make this correction hopefully before the end of the daysoon.

The battle over whether to eliminate one of the nation’s largest tax breaks — i.e., the mortgage deduction — is heating up in Washington. It’s a bruising political fight, involving tens of millions of dollars in lobbying expenses. No surprise there. This is probably the biggest housing issue now before Congress, with the potential to [...]