Foreclosure-plagued cities gain sales

Do any of our readers work in real estate?

June homes sales increased in Massachusetts communities that have been slammed by foreclosures, bucking the statewide trend of declining sales.

Condo life gets harder

Barbara Sanz has never missed a mortgage payment, but the plunge in real estate is punishing condominium owners like her anyway.

Four years ago, she bought her first condo in a glassy new Miami tower when the building was filling up. Now nearly one in six residents in the 43-story building is battling foreclosure and their contributions to the building association are shrinking. Each of the remaining owners has had to chip in an extra $1,000 assessment and $50 more a month for cable and Internet. That is on top of Ms. Sanz’s $450 monthly maintenance fee.

Even though she pays more, her building has broken washers and dryers and unusable exercise equipment, and mold spots her hallway.

“It’s not fair,” said Ms. Sanz, a 32-year-old event planner. “The first two years, I enjoyed all of the benefits of living in a condo. I’m disappointed now. I hate the way the building looks.”

When people buy condos, they expect their monthly fees will cover many of the responsibilities that they would otherwise have as owners of single-family homes, like cutting the grass and paying the water bills. Now many find themselves nagging each other in the hallways to pay their assessments and adding special fees while haggling over chores.

Well, I'm never living in a condo. Goodbye, parents' house, hello, dorm, then, hello, cheap apartment!

Montrose School sold

WAKEFIELD — The final stumbling block to the sale of the Montrose School property to Symes Development, LLC was removed last Saturday when the Board of Selectmen by a 3-2 vote authorized Town Administrator Thomas P. Butler to sign an amendment to the “Disposition Agreement” between the town and Symes that was executed on Dec. 21, 2001.

Looks like they're finally gonna knock down my old school. Sniff.

Under the Disposition Agreement, Symes agreed to pay $1,011,000 for the land and building at 531 Lowell St. and further agreed that the only use Symes would make of the property would be to construct a conventional subdivision of 10 homes.

Town files suit against Millbrook Estates

WAKEFIELD - The town has filed suit against Falite Bros., Inc. and its limited liability company, Millbrook Estates, LLC, for breach of contract, fraud and conspiracy, among other allegations in a nine-count civil action.

If the town's allegations are true, Milbrook Estates really screwed us over.

The town alleges that the defendants “retained or secreted excess profits of $1,324,019 belonging to the Town under the Regulatory Agreement."

Town meeting to decide Montrose School's fate

WAKEFIELD - Should the old Montrose school property be sold?
That’s the key question facing voters as they head into the fall session of town meeting tonight, 7:30 at the Galvin Middle School Memorial Auditorium.

Symes Development, LLC has proposed to purchase the property for $1.011 million. The selectmen were split on whether to take their offer or wait for another, higher one, and are now letting the voters decide. Also, I must mention how old I feel now that the Montrose School, MY elementary school, has been closed for eight years.

Foreigners struggle to buy property in China

For many foreigners, investing in property in China isn't easy.

Tom Kuckock, a 32-year-old Australian lawyer, owns a home in Beijing. He bought it two years ago, after four years of searching and several collapsed deals. The foreigner in the picture is visiting a housing exhibition in Beijing.

For sale...

It's small compared with the other houses on the block. Some say that is part of its charm.

"This is probably livable," said Mary Anne Kull, 61, a tourist from Ocean City, N.J., standing in the mansion's circular driveway.

Livable, maybe, if you've got $16 million.

The 39-room, 19,000-square-foot Gilded Age mansion -- a mere summer house to the Astor family that once owned it -- is on the market at an asking price that would make it one of the most expensive ever sold in this exclusive seaside community.

Ah, yes, another mansion to add to my growing collection.