The latest Case-Shiller housing report isn’t too encouraging: Nineteen of 20 metro markets saw a decline in home prices in October.
One word: Gulp (assuming gulp is a word). Boston also saw a decline.
But here’s the good news: Boston and most other U.S. cities have nevertheless still seen annualized increases in home prices, if only [...]

There are nearly 8,000 banks in the United States, but the top 20 control more than 90 percent of the market. The top three alone control 44 percent.

Click on chart to enlarge.
Source: NY Times
File Under: Too big to fail.

Can you keep count of all the various mortgage-relief programs that the government has started? Have any of them really worked? Will the federal cavalry ever arrive to win the day?
Let’s put it this way: Even Gen. George Armstrong Custer had a better record of attacking problems than the government.
Here’s one reason: The banks [...]

The BBJ has a good list of the top 11 local business stories in ‘11. We can’t argue with any of them.
But if we were to make the list longer, say, to 15 or 20 of the biggest stories in 2011, we’d include the slew of new apartment buildings being constructed in Boston and [...]

A Christmas present to my Boston Real Estate Blog readers: If you provide me with your loyal readership into 2012, I’ll provide you with sound financial stock tips, like the one above.
Click on the photo to enlarge:

Interesting quote:
“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” -Cicero, 55 BC.

The Warren Group is reporting that Massachusetts home sales in November were up 13 percent, a seemingly impressive number.
But it turns out the month as a whole was still comparatively weak, with 3,253 homes sold, while prices fell year-over-year by 8 percent.
Condo sales were up 7.6 percent, while prices dipped 1 percent, according to [...]

If you missed 60 Minutes Sunday, here’s a clip regarding the housing market.

Here’s a good article that asserts we may well have hit the housing-market bottom in the U.S.
Let’s hope it’s true, for we’ve heard this prediction before in the past. Somebody has been predicting the “bottom” almost every week since 2009.
But sooner or later, they have to get it right. And the most recent numbers are [...]

Tom Brady and Gisele’s new $20 million home in California looks like a Medici family castle in Italy.
Guard towers? Are those guard towers? The Tuscany trend has officially gone off the rails.