Newton, MA

Newton Massachusetts Real Estate - Homes Sold Report - 2009

The Newton MA real estate and homes sold activity shows that there were 511 single family homes transacted in 2009 with an average sales price of $840,682 and an average days on market (DOM) of 78. The highest selling price of a home was $3,475,000. Visit the Virtual Homes Blog for a MA statewide report.

Additional resources to evaluate the Newton real estate market include:

Newton MA Real Estate - Community, relocation and school information with town demographics.

Newton MA Foreclosures - Obtain a list of foreclosed and bank owned real estate and short sales.

Newton MA MLS Search - View all listings in the statewide MLS.

Newton MA Homes for Sale - Map Search - Search by location, neighborhood and commuting.

Virtual Homes Real Estate provides search tools to asist you in learning about the community, listing and market conditions.

Visit NH Homes for Sale and MA Homes for Sale for direct MLS access to all listings. To obtain school, demographic, commuting, relocation, home buying and selling information, go to New Hampshire real estate, Massachusetts real estate, Connecticut real estate, Maine real estate and Rhode Island real estate. For information regarding foreclosures, visit Massachusetts foreclosures, New Hampshire foreclosures and Connecticut foreclosures.

The Newton MA real estate and homes sold report is based on activity reported from the MLSPin MA MLS system and is not guaranteed to be accurate. It does not represent all of the listings that have sold during the specified time frame.

Based on the latest numbers being reported the U.S. economy grew at 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2009, the fastest rate in the last six years as businesses stepped up spending. The year in total contracted at a 2.4% rate, the largest decline since 1946. So not all good news.

In addition consumer spending increased at a 2% annual rate in the fourth quarter and business investment grew at a 2.9% rate the first increase since the second quarter of 2008.

Home construction spending was at an annual rate of 5.7% in the fourth quarter ( a coincidence that it is the same figure as the GDP growth).

Lately the housing market indicators have been mostly positive. Newton and its surrounding towns and cities usually buck national trends but at this moment the trends are mostly positive across the nation with regard to the economy. With regard to which direction the prices will go will still depend partly on the tax credits, job creation and other factors such as the strength/ weakness of the dollar but I forcast a Spring market in newton which will see inventories being stable and prices being stable as well. In other words: a strong Spring Market this year.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2010/01/28/historian_activist_zinn_dies/?page=1

The link above is for the obituary for Howard Zinn, a man considered by many to be a wise, free thinking learned man. Zinn, a resident of Auburndale, wrote many books including "You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train". Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Matt Damon were a couple of his many fans. I personally heard Eddie Vedder talk about Zinn at one of Pearl Jam's concerts at The Comcast Center (then known as The Tweeter Center) as one of our country's "wise elders". Damon wrote Zinn into a small part in his and Ben Afleck's movie "Good Will Hunting" and also mentions Zinn's book in the dialog of that movie in a scene with Robin Williams. Pearl Jam actually has a song where in the lyrics the line "you can't be neutral on a moving train" is sung.

Howard Zinn will surely be missed by many.

I have been living in and selling real estate in Newton, MA for decades now. Newton has always been one of the most popular cities in the Boston area and has been called "The Garden City". In the past it was called "America's Safest City" many years in a row. Now I believe it is "America's Most Enlightened City". The following news coming out of Newton shines a very nice light on the kinds of people that live here...not everyone will agree with what is proposed here but let's assume the following relates to a truly innocent human being...that you could be falsely accused of a crime and be held by an unfriendly foreign government and then someday be released back into the world after many years. Some of the following excerpts appear in out local paper:

Doris Tennant, attorney for Abdul Aziz Naji - the Guantanamo detainee- and her law partner, Ellen Lubell, have asked the Newton Board of Aldermen to symbolically welcome Naji to Newton.

Tennant wrote:

The resolution which was to have been considered by our Board Of Aldermen would have asked our community to look beyond the stereotype that all the men at Guantánamo are terrorists, and instead look at each man as an individual who deserves to be treated according to basic standards of human decency and a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. By doing so, Newton could have set an example for other communities across the country by speaking to an injustice suffered by these Muslim men for the past eight years, which under other circumstances may be perpetrated against other groups of people.

The resolution is as follows:

Resolution to Assist in the Safe Resettlement of Cleared Guantánamo Detainee

WHEREAS, President Obama has declared that the prison at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base will be closed by January 2010; and

WHEREAS, a number of detainees at Guantánamo have been cleared by our government of wrongdoing and have been determined to pose no threat to the United States; and

WHEREAS, one such detainee who was so cleared, Abdul Aziz Naji, is represented by two Newton residents, attorneys Ellen Lubell and Doris Tennant; and

WHEREAS, Newton attorneys Ellen Lubell and Doris Tennant have been recognized by the Newton Human Rights Commission for their efforts on behalf of Mr. Naji; and

WHEREAS, like many of these cleared detainees Mr. Naji cannot be repatriated because, following his many years of imprisonment at Guantanamo, he is essentially stateless and fears the potential harm awaiting him if returned to his home country; and

WHEREAS, Congressional action has mandated that these cleared detainees may not be permitted to enter the U.S. and that our government may resettle them only in other countries, thus resulting in extremely difficult resettlement negotiations with other countries; and

WHEREAS, Newton has historically welcomed refugees from a variety of countries and under many circumstances; and

WHEREAS, Newton's history of supporting human rights makes it fitting that our community provide safe resettlement to a man who has been unjustly imprisoned by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Newton Board of Aldermen:

1) urge Congress to repeal the ban on releasing cleared detainees into the United States and 2) welcome this cleared detainee into our community as soon as such ban is lifted.

And BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this Resolution be sent to the President and Attorney General of the United States, the United States Senators for Massachusetts, and the United States Representative for Massachusetts' Fourth District.

I think it is wonderful to see the other side of this matter. Iam not sure of this person's circumstances, and honestly I am not sure if I want him even in the country ANYWHERE but I do think that the sentiment where we might all open our hearts and minds for one moment and consider this man's innocence as something very enlightened. I love being part of a community that has the nerve and intelligence to consider all possibilities and communicate them. I am casting my vote for "America's Most Enlightened City": Newton, MA!

Monday evening, Bigelow Middle School parents who are concerned about the safety of their children walking to the school through what some are calling the Newton Corner "circle of death" met with James Marini to discuss a proposed change in the area's busing.

Interim Superintendent James Marini has reported that a group of Newton Corner families are asking the district to waive its transportation rules and to offer free busing to the neighborhood.

Mayor Setti Warren, who is a memeber of the School Committee, said that he will look into the families' concerns and Marinin said he would schedule another meeting with the neighbors who attended the Monday evening meeting.

School Committee member Geoff Epstein says that the busing district should consider the safety of students. Marini recommended that the current policy be upheld and said that if an exemption were given to Newton Corner then it would need to apply to all students who live in so called "safety zones" throughout Newton.