Well...you won't have much to choose from. While Back Bay was formerly made up almost completely of single family homes, over the past 30 years this has dramatically changed. It started with landlords converting many of these into multi-family apartment homes and more recently with developers converting them to multi-unit luxury condos.

Anthony Giacalone reports that banks are beginning to unload foreclosed properties at reduced prices - especially if they're in need of some work:

... At 212 Chelsea Street, a bank owned brick three family is on the market for $189,900. This property sold in December 2005 for $430,000. ...

Nobody wants to touch it. John Keith discusses how the developers of Russia Wharf, One Franklin (which is supposed to rise above what is now the Filene's hole in the ground) and 316-322 Federal Street are cutting out planned condo units and replacing them with commercial space.

Terry Klein alerts us to a Supreme Judicial Court ruling today that forbids a company that made "unfair" mortgages to people who could not possibly repay them from simply foreclosing on them.

The ruling in Commonwealth v. Fremont Investment & Loan only applies to roughly 2,500 mortgages issues by Fremont, a California company, between 2004 and 2007, but it could give the state an additional legal weapon to keep people in homes they purchased with subprime loans.

The court agreed that Fremont's mortgages, typically requiring no money down but with a 20% "piggy-back loan," all with adjustable rates, were "unfair" because there was no way borrowers could ever hope to repay them unless housing prices continued to rise indefinitely and they could ultimately sell their properties. Loans made on the foreclosure value of a property rather than the borrower's ability to pay "lies at the heart of predatory lending," and Fremont could not evade a state ban on foreclosures by selling the mortgages to another company.

Redfin compiles charts showing the discount off list price in selected Boston Zip codes between Sept. 15 and Nov. 15. Prices are most heavily discounted in Revere and least discounted in Mattapan (Mattapan?). Is that because nobody wants to move to Revere or because Revere sellers have an unrealistic view of what the market will bear these days? Or something else?

Anthony Giacalone reports the market has been "severely hurt." Triple deckers that once might have gone for as much as $650,000 are now on the market for as little as $380,000.

Chris Lovett continues his exploration of the shark-infested triple-decker/condo market in Dorchester:

... A review of more than 200 conversions over the last two years in Boston - mostly in Dorchester and Roxbury - shows more than 100 foreclosure filings against owners who bought more than one unit, sometimes in the same building. Names that appear as unit buyers with mortgage trouble sometimes turn up later as investors converting more units, or as people with power of attorney to represent other buyers.

Chris Lovett examines some interesting real-estate deals of late.