ORDER TODAY AND SAVE
MONTHLY TRANSFER DIRECTORY REPORTS
Call 617.896.5388 or email datasolutions@thewarrengroup.com
THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND REAL ESTATE WEEKLY FOR MASSACHUSETTS BY THE NUMBERS
PAGE 6
County close-up: Middlesex Spotlight: Marlborough
IN PERSON
PAGE 8
For 12 years, it seemed as if all Julie Gray did was work in commercial real estate and play rugby. That’s how Gray remembers the early stages of her career in the Midwest, balancing the demands of brokerage work at a small Minneapolis firm with her role as a member of the U.S. women’s national rugby team.
WEEK OF MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2019
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE BY THE NUMBERS
COMMERCIAL INTERESTS
$4,280 The price paid per square foot on the most expensive home in this week’s Gossip Report. See page 9. Source: The Warren Group
50 percent Only half of first-time homebuyers are married. See page 10. Source: Joint Center for Housing Studies
$400,000 The median home sale price in Massachusetts in July. See Week on the Web on page 2. Source: The Warren Group
10 The number of Middlesex County communities with a median home sale price less than the statewide median, year to date. See By the Numbers on page 6. Source: The Warren Group’s Statistics Module
$565,000 The median home sale price in Middlesex County, year to date. See By the Numbers on page 6. Source: The Warren Group’s Statistics Module
33 percent The stress of selling their home has caused one in three sellers to cry. See Lew Sichelman’s column on page 4. Source: Zillow
11,578 square feet The size of the largest home in this week’s Gossip Report. See page 9. Source: The Warren Group
-1.8 percent The year-over-year change in the number of statewide single-family home sales through July 31. See Week on the Web on page 2. Source: The Warren Group
Unless otherwise noted, all data is sourced from The Warren Group’s Mortgage Market Share Module, Loan Originator Module, Statistics Module and/or proprietary database. For more information please visit www.thewarrengroup.com/business/ datasolutions.
BAKER SHOULD OWN UP TO HIS ROLE IN TRANSPORTATION MESS
A major part of why the MBTA is so broken and the state’s roads are so clogged is the lack of investment and attention from successive gubernatorial administrations – of which Gov. Charlie Baker was often a part.
Governor Was Top Official in Administrations that Underfunded Transit BY SCOTT VAN VOORHIS BANKER & TRADESMAN COLUMNIST
A
n avid reader of editorial pages and opinion columns, I usually skip over the puff pieces written by prominent politicians of various stripes – or, more accurately, by their staffers. But sometimes a carefully crafted piece of political happy talk manages to speak volumes, albeit not in the way it was intended.
Along those lines, I did a doubletake when I spotted, on the opinion pages of our leading local newspaper, an op-ed piece by Gov. Charlie Baker and fellow governor Larry Hogan of Maryland. The governor of Massachusetts – home to Greater Boston, the nation’s most traffic-clogged metro area – hosting the National Governors Association’s Infrastructure Stakeholder Summit and opining about solutions to highway gridlock? And his co-author, the governor of Maryland, the state with the nation’s second most congested roads? Now that’s rich!
And since the summit is not just about roads, but “infrastructure,” let’s not forget that the governor of Massachusetts also oversees one of the world’s most reliably unreliable public transit systems, otherwise known as the MBTA.
Out-of-State Honesty
Comic possibilities abounded of governors from Oklahoma and Nebraska blundering around, lost on the Blue Line in Revere or stuck on a tour bus in bumperto-bumper traffic on Route 128, but alas, it was not to be. Continued on Page 3
A D U A G I TA
BETTER BANKING
Ballooning Cost Estimates Discourage Conversions
To Dodge Structural Bias, Credit Scores Won’t Be Considered
By Steve Adams | Banker & Tradesman Staff
By Diane McLaughlin | Special to Banker & Tradesman
Homeowners Face Sticker With New CD, Berkshire Bank Looks Shock on In-Law Apartments to Help Minority Entrepreneurs
Commercial Real Estate PAGE 7
Banking & Lending PAGE 9