The Bruins-Rangers showdown wasn’t the only game in the North Station area yesterday. Boston Properties and Garden Development Corp. (i.e. the Bruins owners) have officially applied to build a 1.7 million mixed-use development next to TD Garden. The complex would have 500 residential units and lots of retail, office and hotel space. P.S. — Bruins [...]

Even the People’s Republic of Cambridge is saying ‘no’ to burying marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in its city cemetery. It’s totally understandable, considering that one of Tsarnaev’s last acts in life was to brutally execute an innocent MIT police officer in Cambridge. But the entire saga is still so weird and even sad. No one [...]

The city of Boston is making available 500,000 square feet of vacant land that it hopes developers will snap up and turn into much needed housing. But if you read to the end of the BBJ story (sub. req.) you realize just how tough it will be to re-develop some of these sites. Reading between [...]

Interrupting our gripping non-stop arrest-non-arrest coverage of the marathon bombings, we bring you this housing news from the latest Fed Beige Book: Strong consecutive months of year-over-year growth in single-family homes sales halted in February, with some New England states experiencing marginal increases and most observing a decline. According to contacts, buyer demand remains strong, [...]

CNN-Money via Trulia has a package on whether people should rent or buy housing under current market conditions. In Boston, the recommendation, based on rising rent prices and low mortgage rates, is to buy. But in San Francisco and New York it’s still considered better to rent than to buy housing. File under: Choices, choices

The BBJ quantifies how many properties are now selling above list prices: A Boston Business Journal analysis of MLS Property Information Network data found that properties selling for over their asking price have more than doubled in the past year. A total of 512 buyers paid more than the list price in the Boston metro [...]

One might think the above headline applies to the Boston real estate market, based on recent BREB posts, like this or this, on the low sale and rental inventories in the area. But it seems low home-sale inventories are also a major problem nationally. File under: How quickly things change

Boston.com’s Scott Voorhis kindly interviewed yours truly, via email, about the tight apartment-rental market these days in Boston. And, believe me, it’s a tight market these days, with landlords having the upper hand in negotiations.

The BBJ has a list of the most expensive single-family home sales between June 1, 2012 and Jan. 15, 2013 (sub. required). The top position goes to 115 Commonwealth in the Back Bay, selling at $10.6 million for 7,461 square feet, seven bedrooms and 6 bathrooms. Next on the list is 333 Lee Street, in [...]

The latest S&P/Case Shiller report came out today, showing that home prices in the U.S. rose by a strong 5.5 percent in November, with particular strength in the Sun Belt areas. Prices in metro Boston fell month-over-month in November by just under 1 percent. But overall prices for the year are up by 2.3 percent [...]