The Kennedy’s famous home within the Kennedy compound is being donated to the nonprofit institute that Ted Kennedy had set up to study the history of the U.S. Senate.

From what we can gather from the article, this is the main home within the compound. The other properties within the larger compound will remain within the family. The main building will be used for scholarly research and conferences, according to the article.

Kennedy’s late mother, Rose, apparently wanted it this way.

File under: Sad day

The NYT’s Gretchen Morgenson sounds a tad bit skeptical about President Obama’s call last week to convene a new task force to investigate last decades’s mortgage-market debacle, including Wall Street’s bundling of “crap” mortgages into massive securities.

After all, it’s now four years since Bear Stearns went belly up. The SEC and Justice Department have had all that time to go after Bear Stearns and other financial houses. Why wasn’t there a task force before this? It’s obviously an election year, she notes, but there’s also still a need to find out exactly what happened and who did what and why, Morgenson notes.

But she doesn’t sound confident much will be done. Here’s a shocker: We’re not confident either.

File under: Doubting Thomas

Please click on Boston Back Bay condo inventory chart to enhance.

Interesting. Back Bay condo inventory at a two year low.

The Back Bay condo chart above shows fourth quarter sales comparison based on a per square foot basis. Click on Back Bay condo chart to enhance.

Back Bay condo sales for 700 square ft or less increased 81.25% compared to the 4th Q 2010.

Back Bay condo sales from 701 – 1,000 square ft increased 11.76% compared to the 4th Q 2010.

Back Bay condo sales for 1,001 sq ft – 1,500 sq ft down 16%.

Back Bay condo sale for 1,501 sq ft – 1,600 sq ft even from 2010.

Back Bay condo sales for 1,800 – 2,400 down 31.25% from 2010.

Back Bay condo sales over 2,400 sq ft down 53.33% from 2010.

Why pay rent when you can own? Charles Street retail space for sale. For more information call Linda Mitrano at 617-512-4557 or at 617-720-5454.

The Globe has a depressing article on how rents in Boston are now reaching record highs.

It seems almost impossible, considering the weak economy, the amount of lower-priced homes out there, and super-low mprtgage rates. You’d think rents would at least be holding steady.

But law of supply and demand is still the law of supply and demand. Many people just don’t feel comfortable about buying homes in this fragile economy, opting to rent instead, thus driving up demand for a limited supply of rental units. The result is higher prices.

The answers to the problem: A stronger economy, more people buying homes, less people renting, and contractors building more housing units. But all of that, needless to say, is easier said than done.

Charles Street retail space for rent – only $4,000.00 per month. Won’t last. Call Linda Mitrano at 617-720-5454.

Boston Real Estate Blog vaguely remembers running a variation of this ranking before. But we saw it once again over at another blog as if it were new — and we’re still shocked by its findings: Massachusetts is the second best state for foreclosure bargains.

You wouldn’t think that would be the case, considering Massachusetts didn’t have a housing slump nearly as bad as what was experienced in other states. But it makes sense, somewhat counter-intuitively, precisely because we have a stronger housing market. Read the post and you decide.

File under: Still looking for that six-bedroom foreclosure bargain in Dover

The final 2011 housing market statistics are in for Massachusetts. Borrowing a line from Tom Brady, the year sucked, but the fourth quarter wasn’t all that bad.

The Warren Group reports that single-family sales were down 6 percent last year, to 38,994, the lowest figure since 1990. That’s “1990,” as in the worst year of the recession following the collapse of the Massachusetts Miracle. Yikes. That ain’t good.

Prices were off about 3 percent, the Warren Group reported. But there was a bright spot in 2011: Fourth quarter numbers were stronger. The economy also seems to be strengthening. So there’s hope heading into the spring sales season.

File under: Go Pats!

President Obama will give his State on the Union address tonight and he’ll reportedly claim that the economy is improving, but we need to do more. Bravo to that!

The unemployment rate has improved since last year. But one can argue that the slight improvement is due to the fact that people have stopped looking for work – they are as the Labor Department puts it “not in the labor market.”

If you were to include the individuals who have given up looking for work what would be the unemployment rate be? 20 percent? And why doesn’t the Labor Department include discouraged workers?

On a positive note, here in Boston we do have strong signs that the economy in improving. As noted in past blog posts, the unemployment rate in Massachusetts has been going down for a while now. The real estate market has been holding strong compared to most parts of the country. Boston condo inventory is near record lows, which indicates Boston condos are selling.

So what are your thooughts? How would you grade President Obama’s handling of the economy?