Well, they certainly got my attention.

Whether I agree is another matter.

Norwell-based HouseSavvy, an on-line real estate service, is unilaterally declaring it a “sellers’ market’’ in the Greater Boston area.

My post yesterday on rising prices notwithstanding, are we not jumping the gun a little here?

Anyway, HouseSavvy’s Walter Hall points to stabilizing prices, rising sales activity and a continued drop in inventory as the reason for a rather controversial call.

Let’s take a look at his numbers.

House alarms cause me a lot of tension. On two occasions in my career, I have tripped an alarm and could not get it to go off. Once it happened because I couldn’t figure out the right series of buttons to push. (The code was obvious, but the set/go button was unmarked. Really!) Once I walked in to an alarmed house without foreknowledge that there was an alarm. Another time, I opened a porch door during an open house and the alarm went off.

Two out of three times, the police came. Both times, I gave them my business card and they left. That’s a thought for would-be house thieves…

This brings me to today’s topic. Home security.

Home prices are on the rise again in the greater Boston market, a new survey shows.

Values rose 1.6 percent in the third quarter over the same period in 2008 in Boston and the suburbs, to a new median of $331,500, Zillow.com reports.

Short-term, prices were up even more, rising 3.7 percent in the third quarter over the second.
It’s the latest bump up in prices in the Boston area over the past few months, one that is making our area a national leader of sorts as it climbs out the real estate ditch.

Boston and Milwaukee were the largest markets to see home prices rise year-over-year in the quarter, according to Zillow.

Still, as scary as the protracted real estate downturn has been, signs that prices are turning around relatively quickly here in the Boston area leaves me uneasy.

The first-time home buyer’s tax credit has now become an any-home buyer’s tax credit. This credit has been a recurring topic here. I find this credit bad for buyers, in the long run. I think the tax credit is a way to stimulate demand. Increased demand is not in buyers’ interest.

Late in September this year, I went out of a limb. Not only did I predict the continuation of the tax credit, I named the week it would happen. This prediction was instinctive; it was based on my feeling about how the tax credit would most influence buyers to buy now.

Since I know the government doesn’t listen to little old me, let me explain why this timing makes sense:
The old deadline (closing by November 30, 2009) gave would-be buyers a sense of urgency. That flogged sales through the fall market. The new deadline is at April 30, 2010 (to be under agreement. Closing can take place until July 1, 2010.) That will give buyers incentive to be under contract by the end of April, feeding the spring market. Very smart, if you want to create a frenzy. Buying in a frenzy is not the way for a buyer to get a good deal.

Now that I am done dissing the credit, some of you still want to know what it is all about, right?

Another arguably ill-conceived luxury condo complex is hitting the auction block.

This time the address is 20 South Ave., a stylish mid-rise sandwiched between the Natick center commuter stop on one side and the rear of the police and fire stations – complete with parking lot views galore – on the other.

It’s a project I am somewhat familiar with. I live half a mile away in a fixer-upper village colonial that cost less than half what 20 South’s developers at one time hoped to get from prospective buyers.

I also cited the project in a story I wrote for the Globe last January about condo developers who were plunging ahead, despite the economic hard times.

At that time, the project’s builder had already abandoned hopes of selling his units for more than $600,000 and was looking farther down the price scale.

Alas, even pushing prices down into the $500,000s and below does not appear to have done the trick, with plans to auction off 13 units of the mid-rise’s 24 units on Nov. 19.

One of my clients and I were talking about his house. He’s owned it for almost a decade and has done some improvements over that time. He’s really annoyed. One of his improvements has done much more harm than good.

Here’s what happened: My client hired a firm to increase the insulation in the attic and to also install baffles for ventilation. The insulation job led to mold growth in his attic. Now he needs to get a mold clean-up.

The task: Roof shingles last longer if there is good ventilation in the attic. It’s a good thing that most old houses don’t have. Heating costs and fuel waste are kept down by good insulation of the attic. It’s also a good thing that old houses don’t have. These two good-house-care items are at war with one another. If too much insulation is installed, it can shift over and block the ventilation. Then, the damp air from the house (caused by people breathing out, showers, and cooking) condenses in the cool surfaces in the attic. Without ventilation, the dampness can’t get out. This provides a happy environment for mold.

If you want to sell your home in this market, HomeGain.com has two words of advice for you: clean up.

That’s the gist of HomeGain.’s annual survey of Realtors on what is billed as the top 12, do-it-yourself home improvements that can be done on the cheap.

It is a pretty sensible list, though I am not so sure about the survey’s claims of specific dollar gains from some of these common sense measures when sell your house.

Certainly trying to sell a dirty, cluttered home in this market is not a recipe for success when there are a lot of other homes, many of them cleaned and primped, sitting on the market.

Not surprisingly, cleaning and decluttering your home tops the list. At an average cost of $200, it supposedly yields an extra $1,700 on the final sale price.

Apparently it’s a perennial favorite on the HomeGain list, which has been tracking this stuff since 2000.

One of the differences between print media and on-line media is that topics I raise live on -- through the joy of search engines -- long beyond when we here at Boston.com have forgotten about them. Here’s a questions that came to me long, long after the June, 2008 entry. JZ asked about the specifics of the lead paint law when it comes to condos associations:

1+ year later, if anyone can confirm the specific laws one more time, I'd appreciate it. I have searched on the Internet and haven't found anything more specific.

This is specific to Massachusetts. Does the law state that the condo association/condo trust is responsible and will pay for all common area deleading that is required, including both interior common areas and exterior of the building, if currently only one unit has a child under 6 years of age? The interior of the condo unit with the child would of course be the responsibility of that condo unit's owner. The question is for the rest of the building which is all occupied by owners of the condo units (Condo Trustees).

This one is easy. Very easy! If you want to know anything about lead paint, contact Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. You can write them or call them, 800-532-9571.

If you like the direction downtown Boston has taken over the past decade or so, Tuesday was your day.

A wave of sleek, new glass-and-steel condo high-rises has sprouted up on seemingly every street corner, from the Ritz-Carlton Towers off once woe-begotten lower Washington Street to the Mandarin Oriental next to the Prudential Tower.

And the big win by Mayor Thomas M. Menino ensures we will see more of the same as the economy starts to pick up steam.

Under the mayor’s tenure, City Hall's development arm has given a green light to a flood of new condo and apartment units downtown, most of them of the luxury stripe.

And a recent zoning proposal from the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which surfaced just a couple weeks before the mayor’s big victory, sets the stage for more such development.

Boston.com/renow readers know about, US National Bank vs. Ibanez, the decision that was decided twice about foreclosures. Judge Keith Long ruled that US National Bank could not foreclose without the proper papers on record. He upheld his decision on October 14th . Expect an appeal. Meanwhile, about 40 percent of Massachusetts titles that have been through foreclosure are clouded, according to this court decision.

Now that the dust has settled, I can tell the story of how the Ibanez decision has affected one of my clients. I have a client who had a Purchase and Sale on a property after the first decision and before the second on October 14th. The current owner bought it as a foreclosure before the first court case was heard.

Before making an Offer to Purchase, the agent told me that the title was clear and insured. Before working on the Purchase and Sales Agreement, the buyer’s attorney was told by the seller’s attorney that the title was clear and insured. It was after the Purchase and Sales Agreement was signed when the buyer’s attorney started examining the title. There it was: the hallmark title defect that clouds the title under the US Bank vs. Ibanez decision.

Months of dire warnings from the National Association of Realtors and other real estate lobby groups appear to be paying off.

Uncle Sam will keep propping up the still shaky real estate market for months to come under a slew of proposals advancing in Congress.

The most obvious are plans, now gaining momentum, to extend the first-time home buyer tax credit.

While the credit has had its share of critics, a proposal winding its way through the Senate would not only extend it into the spring, but would also expand it as well.

But amid the debate over the credit, Congress has also sped along two other darlings of the real estate industry.

One would prevent higher limits on jumbo loans from expiring, while the other would gut tough new appraisal standards real estate brokers contend have been killing sales.

I got an email that sparked a discussion between me and my husband. The email, from one of our tenants, asked that we hold the rent check a few days before cashing it. Just three days, she said. She had an unexpected dental bill and she needed time for her next paycheck to clear.

Our discussion went on, too. The way I was raised, you pay your rent, you buy gas for the car, and you buy your groceries; then you pay your other bills. I would never think to pay my rent late. I would pay the dentist late, if I was short that month.

My husband thought that many people run things the way I was taught, but others would never think to delay payment to a professional. It would be embarrassing. Since our tenant knew us, she was more willing to lose face with us, since we have an ongoing relationship that could sustain the incident.

My thought: We have a tenant living way to close to the edge! What’s going to happen when she has a car repair? Or a fat heating bill? My husband’s thought: She’s been here a while, she is well employed and employable. He had no worries. In any case, we held the check and her tenancy goes on.

Looking back on my renting days, I can’t recall any of my landlords ever cutting my rent or offering any incentives for me to stay.

The closest thing to a perk I ever encountered was during my waning days as a bachelor back in the late 1990s. After much pressure, I finally convinced the landlord of my Quincy apartment to replace my dorm-sized fridge with a used, full-sized model.

Anyway, with the economy still in a ditch and joblessness at 1970s levels, some landlords have decided it makes more sense to get you to stay, even at a discount, according to new survey by Reis Inc.

They are even throwing in flat-screen TVs, according to a study, detailed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.

Flat screen TVs aside, if you have a job and are in the rental market, you clearly have some clout you didn’t have before.

Sam Schneiderman, Broker-owner of Greater Boston Home Team shows you how easy it is to lose your deposits.

This is the true story about a buyer that did not follow through with the agreement that she made in the Purchase and Sale agreement.

The purchase and sale agreement called for Kim (not her real name) to “submit a completed loan application within four business days of receiving a fully executed purchase and sale agreement from the seller”. When she signed the purchase and sale agreement, Kim also provided the customary deposit. The deposit was returnable only if she did not get a mortgage commitment by the mortgage contingency date specified in the purchase and sale agreement.

The attorney and buyer’s agent both reviewed Kim’s deadlines and obligations with her. Her buyer’s agent checked in with her to be sure that Kim provided everything she needed to her lender. In addition, Kim’s lender assured the buyer’s agent that the lender had “everything” he needed. Despite everyone’s best efforts to keep Kim and the lender on track, somehow she still submitted her mortgage application late. To make matters worse, when the listing agent called the lender to find out why she hadn’t heard from an appraiser yet, the lender told the listing agent that the appraisal was ordered late because Kim’s formal loan application was submitted late.

So now we are down to the wire with the extension of the home buyer tax credit.

There’s the usual horse trading and posturing and 11th hour deal making Washington as the end of the month deadline fast approaches – at least this time it’s just the real estate market we are talking about and not the entire global financial system.

The extension, when it finally gets hammered out, is likely to include trader uppers as well as first-timers.

There are even signs the income limits will be boosted, with a Senate proposal of a cap of $125,000 for single buyers and $225,000 for couples.

If it survives to the final bill, that might help some. Still, even that increase probably falls short of providing a big boost to the high end in the Boston area, where home prices are still some of the highest in the country.

While the credit has spurred lots of activity on the low and mid end of the market, the high-end, despite some recent, positive signs, is struggling under much tougher lending restrictions.

Just check out these numbers on home prices and sales in some of our ritziest surburbs. After years of never ending price increases that bucked the downturn, reality has finally caught up with towns like Weston and Lincoln.

This happened to me.

There once was a house for sale. It was below market rate, by about 10 percent. There was a note on the listing sheet that said something like “ask listing agent about details of the notorious status.” This happened during the period when agents were legally compelled to disclose such things.

I didn’t think much about the notorious status. I went to preview the house, looking for something wrong with it. It was clean; it had modern windows, kitchen and bathroom. The floors were even and newly refinished. The heating system and electrical system was modern. The roof was new enough. It was sunny and pleasant…

But, from the second I stepped into the place, my stomach hurt. A lot! I thought I must have eaten something bad. I don’t usually get indigestion. Despite that, I was excited. I had two current clients who could benefit from a deal like this.

I didn’t look into the notorious status beyond a quick call to the listing agent after I previewed the house. The answer: there was a domestic murder in that house.

OK, this is pretty silly, but Halloween is tomorrow.

If you have young children as I do, it’s practically national holiday over the next two days between parades at school and parties and trick or treating tomorrow.

I just got back from my five-year-old son’s kindergarten parade – my wife is headed over to preschool to watch our two daughters show off their fairy costumes.

If you are looking to optimize your haul of Halloween candy, Zillow.com has just come up with an index on the best towns and neighborhoods in each metro market to trick-or-treat in.

I know, just what you were looking for.

Anyway, the index, Zillow insists, is not just based on the rather crass and faulty assumption that neighborhoods with big and expensive homes will dole out more treats.

Home values are just one of four factors measures, the Seattle-based real estate site contends.

Disclaimers aside, the top five all happen to be high up on the scale when it comes to real estate values.

In the conversation last week, jbf wrote in to correct a mis-assumption:

The "little red note" next to an mls listing is not an indication of a scam! It is an indication that Back Up Offers are be entertained pending some event, such as signing of the P&S, Loan Commitment, Subject to Lender Approval.

Clearly, not everyone gets this. I wrote about the red notes before. Here’s a crib sheet of the symbols you may see:

The little red note and red ACT means that the seller has an accepted Offer to Purchase on the home. That contact is binding unless the buyer wants to make a change (like requesting money back after inspection or needing an extension on the loan commitment date.) Some sellers ask their brokers to continue to market the house until closing, just in case.

PCG means that the price has changed. This can be any change in price; a big reduction, a little one, or even an increase. Whenever a price is changed, the listing pops back to the top of the list for those searching with the newest listings on the top.
Here’s a real example from a current listing:

10/6/2009 Listed for $479,900
10/15/2009 Price Changed to: $478,876

The first-time home buyer tax credit has had its share of problems, including ongoing battles with fraudsters, which I will get to again a little later.

Still, for all the warts and gimmickry, it has definitely helped revive what was a stone cold dead market.

But restricting it to first-timers has been a problem, especially in a high-cost housing market like Greater Boston.

The credit has certainly stimulated demand, but there just aren’t that many starter homes around here. Frankly, there’s just not that much for sale, relatively speaking, with the inventory of homes on the market across the state having plunged from more than 43,000 three years ago to 28,000 today.

That’s led to bidding wars for a limited number of properties. On top of that, there’s no incentive
for homeowners looking to trade upl, which might free up more homes for sale.

A tentative deal reached last night in the Senate would both extend the $8,000 tax credit through April.

Welcome back to Attorney Richard D. Vetstein. Today, he answers questions about condo ownership and what an owner could be held responsible for.

Q: Is an individual unit owner liable if someone gets hurt in the condominium’s common areas?

The answer is no. This is good lead in to the concept of “common areas.” When someone buys a condominium unit, they also obtain an undivided share of the condominium’s common areas and facilities. Common areas typically include obvious things such as building entrances and exits, lobbies, interior stairways, pools and workout rooms. They also include not so obvious areas such as the space between adjoining units, telecommunication wires, and the roof. As outlined in the “master deed,” each unit owner “owns” an undivided share (expressed as a percentage) of all the common areas. But the condominium association has responsibility over managing and maintaining the common areas. Recognizing that unit owners have very little control over common areas, the Massachusetts Condominium Act provides that only the condominium association can be sued for claims related to common areas. In any event, the condominium association should also have a master liability insurance policy in place in case anyone gets injured on common area property. Now, if your unit has a private deck or porch (which is not a common area) with a faulty railing, you could be held responsible if someone fell.

That’s why it’s critical that unit owners have their own “HO-6” unit insurance policy in place.

Q: I own a condominium unit and rent it out to students. Am I responsible for my tenant’s noise and disturbance problems?

FULL ENTRY