The Fenway News reports on First Realty Management, whose 173-unit Burbank Apartments was supposed to go market rate starting today. The city says First Realty owns 896 of the 908 units that have been withdrawn from the federal subsidy program that helped their owners buy them in the first place.
Scott Van Voorhis has to turn to a thesaurus to come up with enough phrases to describe how quickly sales are collapsing in Massachusetts - and to get him to wonder when prices will do the same. "Gruesome" is one of the words.
Chris Lovett reviews 2009 housing sales and prices from Boston neighborhoods.
The Globe details the rise and collapse of Michael David Scott's mini-condo empire.
Compare with Dwight Jenkins.
Erica Farthing reports that for the next 30 days, all units not sold at that recent pin-in-balloon auction will be for sale at auction prices.
Triple deckers, no less, granted, being sold by banks, but still. Anthony Giacalone reports.
Scott Van Vorhis writes the luxo-condo bubble downtown has finally popped.
The Herald reports on a settlement reached with state Attorney General Martha Coakley. The state gets $10 million for its troubles.
Far more details from the Attorney General's office, including the actual settlement agreement.
Brecht Palombo attended the auction for 441 Stuart St., an office building that sold for $37.5 million in 2004 with the expectation it would be converted into condos. It wasn't, and when the auctioneer started the bidding at $30 million, nobody offered until the price went way, way down.
Michael DiMella lists the least- and most-expensive condo sales in Boston in April, ranging from a $25,000 unit in a three decker on Harwood Street in Dorchester ("needs some cosmetics and updates") to a $9.2-milllion in a "classic" building on Beacon Street on Beacon Hill.
I know, you're shocked. Michael DiMella posts a chart ranking neighborhoods by condo prices (and showing the changes between 2007 and 2008). And by "neighborhoods," he means all the neighborhoods in the city, not just the chi-chi "core" neighborhoods - and Southie and Eastie - that some real-estate people seem to think is all Boston is.
Anthony Longo reports on today's auction of 46 units at Longwood Towers in Brookline. All the units went for less than their last asking price (and he provides details on each unit), but:
The developer wins by unloading 46 units and setting the tempo for the remaining units in the project. All in all I think a great day for all.
Michael DiMella wonders if Scott Boras is in charge of selling off the dreaded one's condo at the Ritz, because it just went on sale for $1.6 million more than it did the last time Manny tried offloading it:
... No takers the first time...ok, let's just bump the price 23%! Hmmm.....Sounds an awful lot like Scott Boras is now advising Manny on real estate deals as well. If at first you don't get the offer you want, just raise your price! ...
The foundation today announced it's committing $4.5 million to help preserve affordable housing in Massachusetts.
Part of the money will go to the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation to coordinate federal and state aid for affordable-housing projects, and part will go into the Masschusetts Preservation Loan Fund, which will loan out money to developers who agree to keep their rents down for at least 30 years. The foundation sees preservation of existing housing stock as critical, because it costs a lot less than building new units.
Anthony Giacalone sees some indications of that in recent sales prices.
A guy in a South End coffeeshop clues Jeanne Harnois in about rents in the area where Chinatown, the Theatre District and the South End come together. Of course, there's a reason the rents are so good.
Chris Lovett dissects the latest Warren Group housing-sales data, reports median condo prices in Mattapan were down 70% in December from a year earlier, but that while West Roxbury saw a 61% drop in total number of condo sales, the median price there only dropped 10%.
Redfin Boston posts November numbers from the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, which show that in November, prices dropped like a rock, unlike past, gradual declines. Even with the plunge, Boston values have still gone down less than prices in other major metropolitan areas:
... It will be interesting to see if this marks the start of a new trend or a just one-month aberration. ...
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