Sotheby’s International Realty Expands to San Miguel, Mexico

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Ed Godbois

As we discussed in an earlier post, the Sotheby’s International Realty brand extended its increasing global reach by adding Milan Sotheby’s International Realty to its roughly 12,000 associates within 590 offices and 44 countries and territory’s worldwide. Sotheby’s is always looking to expand their influence of excellence worldwide whenever the right opportunity comes about. This prominent global real estate network constantly strives to construct strong teams of experienced agents who benefit from, among many things, the brand’s broad exposure, its extensive marketing campaigns, latest technology, contacts and resources cross-nationally, referral opportunities, and from the beneficial association offices have with the famous Sotheby’s auction house.

In a Press Release from Market Watch on February 8th of 2012, it was announced where the newest branch housing a Sotheby’s office will be; none other than Mexico’s San Miguel de Allende region! San Miguel Sotheby’s International Realty, as it will be known henceforth, was founded by Larry Stebbins and Adrian Toscano. San Miguel SIR joins the other Mexican locations where Sotheby’s already has a presence, Los Cabos SIR, Riviera Maya SIR and Guadalajara SIR. The quality of service Sotheby’s is known for will harmoniously blend with the vibrant area of San Miguel. Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty wish this new office all of the best as they hit the ground running. We hope to both grow as well as do business together in the not so distant future!

More information: MarketWatch

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113th Anniversary for Animal Rescue League of Boston

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Ed Godbois
Animal Rescue League of Boston

Animal Rescue League of Boston

The Animal Rescue League of Boston recently celebrated their one hundred and thirteenth year anniversary as of February 7th, 2012! The ARL has been helping animals since 1899 under their original phrase used by founder Anna Harris Smith, ‘Kindness Uplifts the World’; and from seeing how far the organization has come, we can say it truly does.

A Dorchester native, Anna Harris Smith and a few of her close colleagues deemed it necessary to have a safe place for abandoned and homeless animals to stay and be cared for. We are all grateful for their efforts many years ago; they would be truly touched with pride to see the impact the ARL of Boston has made for animals and their human companions.

In addition to the original organizers, the many selfless people who give their time, ideas, energy, and most importantly their hearts to these initiatives are the people who really should be praised for such momentous occasions like an anniversary. Beginning in Boston’s Park Street Chapel located downtown, the Animal Rescue League was only fortunate to have 110 supporters and volunteers with a total of $1,200 in funding one hundred and thirteen years ago. Today, there are ninety-two fully trained staff employees and roughly four hundred volunteers all backed by a great deal of financial support from individuals and other parties.

We congratulate the Animal Rescue League of Boston and hope everyone will consider visiting or adopting a pet, finding a career or volunteering at this wonderful organization.

For more information:
Animal Rescue League of Boston
10 Chandler Street, Boston, MA 02116
Phone: (617) 426-9170
Fax: (617) 426-3028
Hours: Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM
info@arlboston.org
arlboston.org

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Boston Charities: Pine Street Inn, hopeFound Merger

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Ed Godbois
Pine Street Inn

Pine Street Inn

Fascinatingly enough, many nonprofits nationwide do not often merge. However, two Boston based charities have gone outside of the norm. With over seventy years of experience combined, Pine Street Inn and hopeFound, the two main Boston-based organizations fighting against homelessness, have joined forces.

This combination of minds and talents does not, surprisingly enough, mean there will be a resulting increase in the eight hundred beds the two agencies currently have, nor any notable expansion of personnel to report for the new group. The central goal is to get the combined over 1,700 men and women associated with these administrations into permanent housing and to make this transition easier than ever before.

One way of alleviating the stress and difficulty of homelessness from these individuals’ lives is that initially with the Pine Street Inn, homeless people are constantly kept involved in job training programs while at hopeFound they were put through a job placement program. Participants would frequently be referred from one organization to another, close to 70% of the time, so a more central merged administration with everything at the people’s disposal is far the superior.

Mary Nee, the former Executive Director at hopeFound recently had breakfast with Lydia Downie, the head of Pine Street Inn. The consensus was that hopeFound was in essence finding that it would be extremely difficult to keep their services going at the level that would make them proud. Instead of faltering as a long-serving nonprofit agency and abandoning their clients in need, Nee and Downie determined the best course of action would be to merge.

The merger will go under the name of just ‘The Pine Street Inn’ which will engulf everything hopeFound had to offer to establish an even better quality and breadth of service. Discussions have been going on over the past year because $50,000 was needed from the Catalyst Fund which supports voluntary collaborative ventures and mergers among nonprofit organizations. Mayor Thomas M. Menino had nothing but praise and support to say regarding these groups and their strategic and careful considerations in coming to this choice. Nee, who will now serve as a consultant during this transition, and Downie hope to be a model of success for nonprofit mergers worldwide. The Pine Street Inn ultimately will keep improving their programs and efforts as they strive to officially end homelessness in and around our great city of Boston.

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Boston University’s Master Plan: 9 Projects, 10 Years

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Ed Godbois

Boston University is doing everything that it can to ensure that its facilities are up to date with the lofty expectations that any world-class University would have. Just recently they announced their plans to either build or renovate various plots of their one hundred and twelve acre territory spread throughout the city.

In The Fenway and Kenmore areas, the University is aiming to embark on nine different projects all within the next ten years. One of these proposals include a new eleven story dorm for five hundred and forty-three students that will cozy up next to the other newer towers behind the Agganis Arena. Other goals that are necessary to achieve is to put a three hundred and forty car parking lot underground at Babcock Field, the renovation of the over ninety-year-old Miles Standish Hall that houses six hundred and sixty students, building an eleven story academic building from the ground up that will be at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Granby Street. Finally, another development worth mentioning is the renovation of the 1960’s built School of Law on Commonwealth Avenue in addition to adding 125,000 square feet to the facility.

Due to the fact that none of these above or any of the total nine plans for construction have released any concrete dates for an expected completion nor figures for how much this master plan will cost, it seems inevitable that many of these will take a considerable amount of time, up to a decade

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Real Estate News: Low Housing Inventory Shows Pent Up Buyer Demand

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Ed Godbois

We are seeing it in the Boston and Greater Boston neighborhoods. Buyers are coming in droves to open houses to tour the low number of properties that are currently on the market. In some cases there have been 20, 30 or more parties reported having come through a Sunday open house, even with buyers waiting at the property before the doors are opened.

What is happening? There are a few factors that we can speculate that are contributing to the current state of the real estate market. First, the current rates are still proving to be at historical lows, even sometimes making it cheaper to own your home than rent. Next, this year’s extremely mild climate has invited the spring real estate market to arrive earlier than normal. Finally, with the number of active homes for sale in MLS being low, buyers are quickly jumping on any properties that are coming on the market. In the last 30 days alone, Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty has represented 9 transactions where the home was sold or went under agreement in less than 7 days (Source: MLS). The demand has not been geographically specific. These transactions are from Boston areas including the Back Bay all the way out to the suburbs like Weston. If you have been considering listing your home, now may be the time to take advantage of such a large and eager audience.

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Boston Conservatory Purchases $5.1 Million Fenway-Facing Building

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Ed Godbois
Fenway Ball Park

Fenway Park

How thrilling would it be to be one of the 730 lucky students at the Boston Conservatory studying music less than a block away from historic Fenway Park! This idea may soon come to fruition as on January 17th of 2012, the Conservatory announced its $5.1 million purchase of a one-story warehouse located at 132 Ipswitch Street.

Directly across from Jillian’s, this large corner building is most notable for housing the Shrut & Asch Leather Company since 1982. A 70-year old business, owner Howard Shrut who owns the building through a family trust, has taken the initiative to now move his leather business to Woburn, Massachusetts. Shrut indicated that there has always been great interest in the property from developers with an array of ideas for the plot, including the Redsox who wished to expand their assets around ‘America’s Most Beloved Ballpark.’

One can see why this property was a prized possession to have, one that is zoned for up to eight-story’s that would certainly be able to overlook the stadium if built. However, the Boston Conservatory has decided to either redevelop the whole site or put the existing building through a complete renovation. What is in the plans for the Conservatory is to have additional classroom and practice spaces due to their three expiring studio spaces in the city coming in 2016. There was the simple need for expansion from their current 12-building occupancy spread throughout the area. Also, there lies the possibility of adding housing for dorms for the students at the new Ipswitch Street address, and what a way to live out your college years in a location like that!

Thus far, there have been no set dates or plans released as to what the Conservatory is going to officially do or when they plan on doing it. Regardless, this is absolutely an exciting announcement, and whatever should happen we are more than confident that the site’s improvements will only enhance the Fenway area.

More Information: Boston Herald

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Boston Real Estate: Boston Among Top Cities for Attracting Commercial Investment

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Ed Godbois

Half of all of the commercial real estate investment worldwide occurs in just 30 cities? A presentation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland from a study enacted by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is where these results came from. At this annual event, JLL proved how of these top 30 cities, 9 came from Asia Pacific, 9 came from Europe and 12 came from the America’s.

Boston was on this list coming in at number 18! With $6 billion of direct commercial real estate investment piping into the city of Boston from 2010 – 2011, there is much of a reason to believe this trend will continue into the coming years. With so much anticipation of all of the new commercial developments that are or soon will get under way in The Greater Boston Area, experts hint that Boston will continue to push on and lead the way throughout at least the next decade.

The number one city on the list you might ask? That was London, with a staggering figure of $43 billion in commercial real estate investment from 2010-2011.

More Information: BankerandTradesman.com

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Boston Real Estate: The Return of Rising Home Prices?

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Ed Godbois

Would you believe that at least in some towns surrounding Boston, the median house prices achieved are close to the 2005 levels? Apparently, there is data that supports how in 2011 compared to 2010, there was a minuscule 0.1% increase in home prices. However in addition the estimated 1.4% increase from 2011 to 2012, still rather diminutive, is still a positive sign nonetheless.

As we discussed in several blog posts earlier, a very causative reason for this improvement can be linked to the growing assortment of biotech and high-tech firms that are aiding in the economy’s recovery in the Greater Boston area. They have provided jobs, established Boston as a destination for growth in their fields, built up our infrastructure and have impacted the real estate market as these highly-skilled people obviously need comparable places to live.

Some of the towns worth mentioning that have shown hints of stability regarding their median house prices from 2010-2011 are the following:

  • Needham – +$20,000 to $650,000, just short of $663,750 median price from 2005
  • Lexington – +$10,000 to $704,500, basically matching the $705,000 median price from 2005
  • Wellesley – +$15,000 to $881,500, however still $90,000 short of the median price numbers from 2005
  • Newton – +$17,000 to $752,000, close to the $760,000 median price seen from 2005

Not all towns have of course succeeded in increasing the median price rates as those listed above. Some of these include Medford, Braintree, Quincy, Weymouth, and Franklin. On the other hand, there is still evidence pointing to the fact that even some of these areas are still stabilizing and that drastic increases or decreases in home values are starting to level off.

On the whole, this is an uplifting way to bring in the new year with regards to the future outlook of our real estate climate. We can only hope that these positive trends continue!

More Information: Boston.com

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Boston #1 Most Biked & Walked City

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Ed Godbois

We all know how much of an easy city Boston is to get around in, but what about nationwide? Perhaps our generally smaller city is a reason why many find it more efficient to walk or bike to work. Parking which is often expensive could also be a factor, however the central reason seems to be because of the safety of walking and biking, the popularity of it and the increasing accessibility and affordability of bicycles.

It comes to be known that Boston was ranked as number one out of 51 cities in 50 states nationwide for the most biked and walked city! We were far and away the greatest walking city, with 13.9% of commuters walking. This can be compared to the second highest city of Washington, D.C. with 11.4% of people walking to work. For those who prefer to ride a bicycle, there were 1.5% of people in Boston who took this ever so popular form of transportation. This figure did not end up as one of the top cities with Portland, Oregon having 5.5% of commuters riding bicycles.

With the Hubway in Boston (which we discussed a couple of weeks ago), there is much reason to ride instead of drive. With the expansion of Hubway bicycle stands to places outside the city such as Somerville, Brookline and Cambridge, the demand for such bicycles is sure to continue to rise. Having more outlets where individuals can rent these bicycles outside of Boston only further encourages them to choose this emission-free way to get to work.

These results came from the 2012 Benchmark Report and took critical information from pedestrian and biker surveys, government agencies and advocacy groups. Boston was also found to have the least amount of biking and pedestrian fatalities. This is truly astonishing as one would think the city with the highest mass of people participating in this form of commute within a small, dense city would have the highest number of accidents. This evidently was not the case, we can proudly say.

While biking is gaining speed as an option for transportation, there still needs to be more bike lanes for Boston to increase this percentage enough to challenge the cities like Portland where it is slightly more frequent. Nonetheless, biking, walking and continuing to have a fit, Green and efficient city is really setting Boston apart from all the rest!

More Information: Bostinno.com

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Boston South End Real Estate: South End Named Best Neighborhood

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Ed Godbois

Do you live in Boston? Or are you considering a move? Of course finding the right neighborhood be it for permanent residence or for a vacation getaway is truly circumstantial. It depends on the people and what they are looking for, what will best mean home, or in many cases, home away from home for them. If voting were the case, every neighborhood would have proponents claiming theirs is superior, but let’s imagine from a broader picture of 500 people who were recently polled.

In a recent neighborhood poll by Curbed in and around Boston, Cambridge and Somerville matched head to head. The bracket format looked exactly as if it were the NCAA Sweet Sixteen tournament, matching up 16 (it even ranked the locations) neighborhoods vs. one another to then get voted on to determine which should go through to the next round. The number 1 ranked neighborhood was Beacon Hill, with Mission Hill as number 16 rounding out the tournament.

The ‘Final Four’, as it were, came down to Beacon Hill vs. South End in the Northern Bracket, and the North End vs. Cambridge in the Southern Bracket. The South End and Cambridge were the ones to advance for what would surely be a hotly contested final round. With just 63% of the final vote, the South End came out victorious as the Neighborhood of the Year for 2011!

Seeing where your neighborhood or place of interest fell with respect to public opinion was really a fun way to see where the interest lies concerning our area!

More Information: Boston.com, Curbed.com

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