One of the most interesting court rulings is expected soon is the Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling on the Ibanez case. The case may have some far-reaching consequences both in Massachusetts and for the entire country. The central problem the court will be grapling with is the validity of securitization of mortgages as they have been [...]

Let this be a lesson to everyone in real estate. Shaq was on Letterman last night and dropped this nugget: he’s living in Sudbury because he found that property by Googling “big house outside of Boston.” Shaq says he likes his 10-acre Sudbury home where there are foxes, wild turkeys and bears. Um … there [...]

The website Real Estate Channel has a concise piece on Quincy’s huge downtown renovation plan. The piece sheds a little more light on the financing of the plan, which calls for the city to overtake project debt only after revenue is generated from tenants, parking fees, etc. It’s probably not totally unique, but it is [...]

The best-selling author of the children’s book “The Polar Express” just bought a $3.63 million home in Beverly, according to Banker & Tradesman. The author, Chris Van Allsburg, bought an 1883-era, 12,400 square-foot mansion on Paine Avenue. Information found on Wikipedia mentions his home is in Providence, RI, so we’ll take this as a net gain [...]

This falls into the realm of news we expected. The Warren Group reported that foreclosures in Massachusetts fell 25 percent in November from the prior month. This is the side effect of the various investigations into the robo-signing scandal. The drop from a year earlier is almost 40 percent. Just so everyone doesn’t forget, a [...]

From Thomas Grillo’s report today in the Boston Herald summing up the 2010 Massachusetts real estate market: “The Boston-area housing market is like the little engine that could. Repeat sale prices (are) down about 14 percent in Boston (from their peak), while other cities in California, Florida and Nevada are down by 50 percent.”–Karl Case [...]

On the same day the Boston Herald posts an editorial calling for voters to vote “Yes” on Question 2, the repeal of the “affordable housing law,” the Boston Globe reports on a housing study that says Boston rents will remain high for the foreseeable future. The study is mostly a yawner, stating that the housing [...]

One in every 381 U.S. homes are in some stage of foreclosure. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors says pending single-family home sales dropped by 10 percent in August, compared with last year. But the group’s president, Kevin Sears, says a federal tax credit inflated last year’s sales, making that 10 percent drop less worrisome. Excerpt from the Massachusetts Assoc. of Realtors: The number of condos put under [...]

Banker & Tradesman has an interesting story today on how Massachusetts real estate agents are having a hard time telling/convincing sellers now is the time to reduce your asking price: This past Labor Day weekend, real estate agents may have had more sympathy for drivers stuck in the annual six mile pile-up around the Bourne Bridge: The [...]