Both the Boston Business Journal and the Boston Globe have big articles on all the delays in building various housing and commercial developments along or near the East Boston waterfront.
Most observers agree East Boston has come a long way over the decades. But if it can just get these last few developments done, the [...]

Yes, the featured condo/ loft at an old factory costs $665,000. But it’s pretty big and definitely cool looking inside. The short video is also a  new feature that newspapers are starting to attach to more of their online stories. It works.
File under: Pictures speak a thousand words.
File under, II: Should have invested in Davis Square [...]

Nationwide there’s still not much bright news about the real estate market as the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller composite index of home prices shows.  From October to November, the 20-metropolitan area composite snapshot shows prices fell 0.5 percent (seasonally adjusted). For 2010 , the index shows prices off 1.6 percent. New low “peaks” are expected, [...]

Again, there’s definitely some light at the end of this long tunnel. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Beige Book report sums up the regional economy as “generally positive, albeit moderate.” Among the sectors reporting steady though moderate growth: manufacturing, retail and business services. Of course, residential real estate remains “in the doldrums” but commercial [...]

The Herald reports today that Boston’s biggest commercial property owner won’t be contributing to Boston’s first business improvement district (BID) to help the Downtown Crossing area.
Chicago-based Equity Office Properties has five properties in the proposed BID that includes Downtown Crossing and adjacent areas.
In all, 16 percent of BID property owners have notified the city that [...]

According to this week’s Boston Courant, more prospective tenants have expressed interest in large Newbury Street retail spaces in the last few months; that can cost upwards of $100.00 per sq ft. and between $28,000.00 to $40,000.00 each month for choice street locations.
One example of a large space being rented is 122 Newbury Street, Pottery [...]

The MBTA’s plan to take over the Postal complex along the Fort Point Channel in Boston has fallen through. The deal’s collapse will probably delay the planned expansion of rail service in the Greater Boston area.
The MBTA is trying to spin the setback into positive news. But no one else is cheering.
File under: Train wreck

Wellesley College professor and housing expert Karl “Chip” Case is retiring.
Here’s hoping he has a happy retirement, though he faces difficult days ahead (see article for sad reason).
Case’s contribution to the study of housing has been enormous. He helped develop the now famous S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Indices, which the entire industry uses to gauge [...]

Wonder what’s going on behind the banking scenes?
The BBJ has a story on the struggling Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, which the paper describes as a key source of funding for area lenders. The story gives a small peek into how complex things are right now.
The bank is apparently in good fundamental shape. [...]

The head of the Federal Housing Administration warned that raising down payment requirements or taking similar steps to limit the pool of eligible buyers for FHA-backed loans would hamstring a fragile housing recovery.
“If it weren’t for this program, assuming that risk is being protected, this would forestall recovery of key metropolitan markets across the nation,” [...]