Archive for the 'Local News' category
Anyone want to buy Hogan's Run?
sited from Boston.com
Looks like HOGAN'S RUN in Lower Allston is for sale, only about three years after hipsters discovered it and took it over for a few months until they got tired of making the effort (remember that? It was poised for a breakthrough!). But anyway, yeah -- the dive bar is available, and if only someone in the local music scene found $750k between the couch cushions (Ernie Boch?) we could turn this place into another performance space (it already comes with an entertainment license!). It could be like the O'Brien's Pub of LA, finally putting to (accurate) use all those old "This is L.A. Not Boston" shirts the Common Ground (RIP) used to sell. continue article...
Cambridge now the top rental market?
sited from Boston.com
Move over Back Bay and Beacon Hill. The 1980s and 1990s were good for you, but there is a new king of the rental market across the Charles.
Asking rents in part of Cambridge are now rivaling or even topping those in Back Bay and Beacon Hill - no small feat given some of the outrageous rents some owners of downtown Boston luxury condos are now seeking.
And vacancy is arguably even tighter - Tory Row Real Estate's Arthur Horiatis pegs the Cambridge apartment vacancy rate at about 1 percent.
That's down from a still tight - but more terrestrial - 4 to 5 percent just a few years ago.
Cambridge has New Economy vibrancy. Back Bay and Beacon Hill, bastions of the financial sector, don't.
Here are a couple of plugs for the Cambridge market by a couple of unabashed partisans. For those who would rather stay in Boston, here's your chance to make the case for renting on Beacon Hill or Marlborough Street.
Don't be shy. continue article...
Housing sales remain tentative, report finds
sited from Boston.com
The state’s housing market continued to sputter last month as buyers remained skittish, making it the slowest June for sales since 1991, figures released yesterday showed.
Last month, 4,313 single-family homes were sold, a 23.5 percent drop from the same month last year, according to Warren Group, a Boston company that tracks local real estate. It marked the fifth consecutive month of sales declines in Massachusetts, pushing volume down 20 percent compared with the same period last year, Warren Group said.
Condominium sales also fell, to 1,706, nearly 32 percent below June 2010. For the first six months of the year, condo sales dropped almost 30 percent compared with that period last year, Warren Group said.
Greig moves to protect properties
sited from Boston.com
James “Whitey’’ Bulger’s longtime companion, Catherine Greig, who faces federal charges for allegedly harboring the notorious fugitive, has moved in recent weeks to protect her assets, according to registry records in Norfolk and Suffolk counties.
Legal analysts say the moves appear designed to protect her from creditors and any potential penalties imposed by criminal or civil courts for her alleged role in assisting Bulger during his years on the run.
Greig this week filed a legal document with the Suffolk Registry of Deeds handing over any share she may have in her family’s $588,100 South Boston home to her sister, Margaret McCusker, for $1 - even though it remains unclear whether she has a financial stake in the property. continue article...
Mass. single-family home sales post worst June in two decades
sited from Boston.com
The sales of Massachusetts single-family homes dropped 23.5 percent in June to 4,313 homes, the lowest level for June since June 1991, the Warren Group reported today.
On a year-to-year basis, it was the fifth straight month of double-digit percentage decreases, said the Warren Group, a Boston firm that collects real estate data.
One positive note: For the second consecutive month, year-over-year home prices increased. The median sale price of single-family homes was $325,850 in June, up from $325,000 in June 2010.
One reason for the drop in the volume of sales last month is the expiration of a federal temporary tax credit for home owners that gave sales last year’s sales a boost.
“This year’s sales slump is carrying on as we compare the level of home sales in 2011 to the inflated number of sales driven by last year’s home buyer tax credits,” Warren Group chief executive Timothy M. Warren Jr. said in a statement. “However, June is typically one of the busiest months of the year for real estate closings. It is disappointing to see such a steep decline. Since June is the last month affected by the home buyer tax credit, we’re hopeful that coming months will bring some positive news.”
Bay State condominium sales also fell in June, dropping nearly 32 percent from a year ago, the Warren Group said. The median selling price was $295,000 for a condo, up 4.6 percent from $282,000 a year earlier.
