Foreclosure notices rise in Mass

BOSTON – Foreclosure petitions and auctions in Bristol County, Mass., rose in November in year-over-year comparisons, according to real estate tracking firm The Warren Group.

The group said that petitions – the first step in the foreclosure process – rose by 25.3 percent last month compared with 2008, from 142 to 178. Auction notices, the second step, jumped 86 percent (from 114 to 212), while foreclosure deeds – the last step in the process – fell by 7.8 percent (from 90 to 83).

For the year through Nov. 30, the number of petitions and auction notices issued in Bristol County has risen 33 percent and 50 percent, respectively, compared with last year. Foreclosure deeds have fallen by 25 percent.

Statewide, The Warren Group said the number of petitions in Massachusetts rose 45 percent in November year over year, from 1,335 to 1,937. Auction notices increased 78 percent, from 1,134 to 2,015. Foreclosure deeds slipped from 888 to 701, a 21 percent decline.

“While the November data provide some positive news, foreclosures continue to be a problem in the real estate market,” said Warren Group CEO Timothy M. Warren Jr. “Due to unemployment and other economic factors, homeowners continue to have high rates of delinquency on their mortgages, which eventually leads to the initiation of foreclosure proceedings.”

Boston REIT poised to buy 180 N. LaSalle

(Crain’s) — A Boston real estate investment trust that is an active investor in Chicago has a tentative agreement to buy 180 N. LaSalle St. at a steep discount from a $116.4-million deal that collapsed amid last year’s financial crisis.

The buyer was identified as Winthrop Realty Trust in a letter sent earlier this month by current owner Prime Group Realty Trust to tenants in the 38-story North Loop tower, according to sources who received the letter.

Michael Ashner, chairman and CEO of Winthrop, declined to comment. The deal is expected to close next month.

Winthrop would pay less than $90 million, or $116 per square foot, for the 770,191-square-foot building, sources familiar with the transaction say.

That would be nearly 23% less than California investor Zaya Younan finally agreed to pay in December 2008 — after several negotiations — before his deal fell apart in February because he couldn’t obtain financing.

Greater Boston office vacancy hits 15.5 percent

Additionally, during the closing quarter of 2009, Greater Boston’s office market experienced 421,000 square feet of negative absorption. While Class A asking lease rates dipped it is notable that the rate of decrease has deteriorated significantly. This quarter’s decrease of 0.7% in asking lease rates compares to a 3.4% average decrease during the preceding four quarters. In certain bellwether areas – the Financial District, East Cambridge and Waltham – lease rate declines have materially slowed or halted.

This quarter’s “Market Interesting” section delivers a significant finding. During the current economic slowdown, negative news has dominated the commercial real estate market, with a major focus on decreasing real estate values and lease rates. However, many tenants with 3-7 year leases expiring now may find themselves looking at rents that are higher than when they signed their current agreement.

“Although the findings don’t show a turnaround in the commercial real estate market, it’s good to see the slowdown in the rate of decline in the asking lease rates,” said Brendan Carroll, vice president of research, Richards Barry Joyce & Partners. “This is positive news that gives us some level of optimism as we head into 2010.”

The year commercial properties took a dive

It was a year when auctions grabbed the headlines, rents plummeted, vacancies soared and massive commercial real estate projects stalled.

“This crisis is international,” said Roy MacDowell, president of Boulder Capital, whose $500 million mixed-use project on more than 700 acres in Hopkinton is on hold. “And Boston is not immune.”

In 2009, the John Hancock Tower sold at auction for $660 million, about half what it fetched two years ago; a German bank foreclosed on the 119-acre Polaroid campus when the development team failed to refinance its debt for a $500 million plan to transform the empty space into a 6 million square-foot office and retail complex on Route 128; and Corcoran Jennison Cos.’ Bayside Associates LP lost the Bayside Expo Center at a foreclosure auction.

Boston Properties declares quarterly dividend

BOSTON — Boston Properties Inc. said its board has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 50 cents for the October-through-December period.

The real estate investment trust, which owns a portfolio of office properties, said the dividend is payable on Jan. 29 to shareholders of record at Dec. 31.

Housing boom goes bust in finance crisis

The decade began sweetly as sales of single-family homes and condominium set records. But it ended on sour note.

“We experienced a dramatic housing boom from 1999 through 2005,” said Harold Petersen, an economics professor at Boston College. “But the housing debacle has driven sales down to their lowest levels in years.”

While 2009 is expected to close with sales of nearly 59,000 single-family homes and condos, that number is 34 percent below the peak of 1999 when housing purchases topped 90,000, according to the Warren Group, the real estate market tracker.

Boston homeowners to see property tax hike

The tax bill for the average Hub homeowner will rise by $173 next year as the city tries to fill the gap left by a 5 percent drop in the assessed value of single-family homes in Boston due to the weakened housing market, according to the city.

The residential tax rate for fiscal 2010 is expected to be $11.88 per $1,000 of valuation, compared to the 2009 rate of $10.63. The rate for business properties will rise from $27.11 in 2009 to $29.38 per $1,000 of assessed value.

“If we didn’t increase the tax rate, it would lead to a significant reduction in the city’s property-tax revenue at a time when local aid and other revenue are in decline. That would be bad,” said Ron Rakow, Boston’s commissioner of assessing.

The market may still be down, but your taxes are going up

That’s the frustrating dilemma many homeowners across the Bay State now find themselves in.

Cash-strapped towns and cities are scrambling are boosting residential tax rates as they scramble to find any extra revenue they can.

Boston is expected to announced, as soon as this week, a roughly 10 percent increase to its residential tax rate.

Homeowners in suburban towns are also feeling the pain, officials raising the residential tax rate in Lexington, Braintree and Walpole as well, among others.

The increases, in some cases, are sometimes offset by falling real estate values. But even in a tough market, the decline in a home’s assessed value may not be enough, with the tax rate rising even more.