Felix Mizioznikov/Shutterstock

Curbed Boston: By Tom Acitelli  Apr 2, 2018, 8:06am EDT

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and a handful of private companies, including Vertex, are working toward launching weekday ferry service from Lovejoy Wharf near North Station to the Seaport District-slash-South Boston waterfront.

The authority has issued a request for proposals to underwrite the service for a year, with an eye toward extending it for three additional years. If the authority can line up the private funding—and it looks like it can—then service could start in late August or September.

It’s not clear what the price of a commute would be, but the effort would utilize what one authority official described as the region’s “blue highway”—its waterways and harbor—which are far, far less clogged with traffic than its real highways.

The ferry service would also be the latest big change in the area around North Station. Stay tuned.

 Aaron Terrazas at Zillow Research

Mortgage rates fell over the past week to their lowest levels in a month and are now below where they stood at the end of February.

The week was a repeat of the familiar pattern we have seen repeatedly for the past few years: Just as macroeconomic fundamentals are poised to push rates higher, geopolitical fears seize the headlines, prompting a financial flight to safe assets and pushing mortgage rates downward.

Looking only at interest rates and not at the broader context, U.S. home shoppers have been indirect beneficiaries of a tumultuous world buffeted by fears of financial instability in China and Brexit over the past two years, and now fears of a global trade war. The decline in mortgage rates is all the more telling because it occurred the same week that the Federal Reserve increased short-term lending rates. After steepening somewhat during the first two months of 2018, the yield curve is again flattening.

Beyond ever-present (and difficult to predict) geopolitical risks, markets are likely to watch for inflation data due Thursday as well as speeches by two Federal Open Market Committee voters early next week. Markets will be closed for the Good Friday holiday, which could temper volatility, although borrowers should expect conservative pricing going into the long holiday weekend.

By Tom Acitelli  

Curbed Boston Newsletter

A little late March snowfall can’t stop time: Spring has technically arrived in Boston, and soon springtime weather will as well.

Here are several photographic reminders of just how gorgeous the city can look.

↑ The Public Garden tulips will soon bloom in oceans of red, orange, and yellow, including around the famed statue

Courtesy of NABB  

       at the Prudential Skywalk

This Year's Lineup of Back Bay restaurants and purveyors:

This year a portion of the proceeds will benefit The Women's Lunch Place.

Musical entertainment provided by the Berklee College of Music.

For more information about this truly enjoyable night out and how to buy tickets, click on the link [...]

Residence 11H at the Carlton House. Stunning views with a European feel.
Please click to view more information on this beautiful property.

https://2commonwealthboston.com

Four Seasons two bedroom overlooking the Boston Public Garden!

Priced to sell at $2,575,000 or $1,798 per SF; $621 below the average sale price per SF of the last five front facing residence at the Four Seasons at 220 Boylston Street.  At 1,432 SF with two bedrooms, two baths, garage parking and views into the Public Garden, that leaves [...]

Curbed Boston: By Tom Acitelli  Mar 19, 2018

A scaled-back proposal to build a primarily residential tower over the Massachusetts Turnpike next to the Hynes Convention Center won a key approval from the Boston Planning & Development Agency on March 15.

Developer Weiner Ventures had originally proposed building two buildings where Massachusetts Avenue meets Boylston Street: One 566 feet and 39 stories, the other 283 feet and 24 stories.

The newly passed proposal includes plans for just one of those towers—and it would now reach to 484 feet and 27 floors. It would include 108 condos atop two floors of retail and restaurant space as well as two levels of parking.

By: Kris Berg. HGTV

Professional stagers are paid to bring out the best in your home. Don't take it personally.

BY: JANN SWANSON @ Mortgage News Daily  Mar 14 2018

Millennials are picking up the pace of moving into homeownership, but the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) says not all are finding a way. Its 2018 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends study found that inventory constraints and higher housing costs have prevented some from leaving the more affordable confines of their parents' [...]

By Tom Acitelli of Curbed

darqdesign/Shutterstock

Major projects are driving a lot of change in different areas of the Boston region—in some more than others.

These are the six neighborhoods and one city everyone should be watching right now.

Back Bay 

The under-construction Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences One Dalton Street—a.k.a. One