According to an analysis from the National Association of Realtors, the Boston metropolitan area has the second lowest unemployment rate in the country.

Measured in percentages, Boston had about a 6.3% unemployment rate, the latest data available. Only Washington, D.C. did better, with a rate around 6.1%. Las Vegas has a rate over 14%, with Detroit second at about 13%.

Nearby New York is around 8% while San Francisco’s near 10%.

Below, changes to the metro-Boston unemployment rate during the past five years.

A complete list of all open houses scheduled for the weekend of October 2, 2011 in the Back Bay.

Please contact me for complete details and to set up private showings.

Above, 483 Beacon Street, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts. Bill Gehan of Campion & Company Fine Homes Real Estate is the listing agent.

Online real estate valuation company Zillow.com says that home values rose during the second quarter 2011 in many downtown ZIP codes, as well as in other Boston neighborhoods.

The Boston Business Journal has the details.

Demographically, they’re on opposite ends of the spectrum, but Boston’s Beacon Hill and Mattapan neighborhoods do share something in common: They were both among the hottest housing markets in the state in the second quarter.

The BBJ has a cool interactive tool that you can use to plug in your town or city’s name or do it by ZIP code. Not all ZIP codes are available (no 02113-North End, for example) but 159 towns and cities are.

For ZIP code 02118, which is most of the South End and a bit of Roxbury, sales volume was off in the second quarter by 29% (!) but prices were up 3% from first to second quarter and 1% since last year at the same time.

The Zillow.com data is useful if you track it by quarter, but it does have some serious weaknesses.

As the BBJ points out: Zillow’s valuation data is based on all homes in a given market, and not just properties listed for sale or sold in a given period.

Based on the recent history of home sale prices, inventory level, unemployment rate, and number of “past-due” loans, it looks as though the Greater Boston real estate market is poised to recover over the coming months.

That’s one conclusion you can reach after reading the Wall Street Journal article, Sliding Sales Listings Lift Housing Outlook.

Past due loans were under 5% in Quarter 1 2007, rising to over 10% in Quarter 1 2010. It is around 8.7%, now.

Average home values dropped from around $370,000 in January 2007 to $320,000 in June 2010, pretty much steady for the past three years between 2008 and 2011.

Boston does much better than other metropolitan areas when it comes to inventory levels, year-on-year price changes (decreases), and unemployment rates.

Inventory level dropped almost 3% from a year ago, which means either more people are selling their homes or fewer people are listing their homes for sale. Prices have decreased by 3.6% this year, whereas other cities had drops from 3.9%-11.5% or higher.

The unemployment rate in the Greater Boston area is 7.4%, which is far lower than other major metropolitan areas, including Atlanta (10%), Charlotte (10.8%), and Denver (9.3%).

With a good economy comes opportunity, for both buyers and sellers of Boston real estate.

Image above from the Wall Street Journal, courtesy of Zillow.

Which Boston neighborhood do you live in? Are you sure?

The Boston Globe unravels the mystery of Boston’s neighborhoods’ borders in an article today.

It’s a common debate/discussion in the local real estate community. Real estate agents are accused of, at times expanding the borders (to give more appeal to listings) and shrinking them (to exclude things such as crime and blight). For instance, the South End’s borders are fluid and ill-defined. To agents, it’s often Massachusetts Ave used as the border to the west, except when they have listings on the other side and want to get buyers interested.

The historic record is little help since, as the Globe points out, much of Boston is made of landfill. You can look at old maps, but look to far back and all you’ll see is marshland. Many neighborhoods didn’t even exist before 1850.

Is Kenmore Square in Back Bay or The Fenway, or is it its own neighborhood? What about St. Botolph Street? Is it Back Bay or South End?

Another agent friend of mine had a client who called him up after closing on a condo purchase on Mass Ave. He had just received his first mail at his new address, and the label said, “Mass Ave, Roxbury, Massachusetts”. He freaked out, “I don’t live in Roxbury, do I??”

One answer was, “Yes.” Another was, “No.” The third was, “Why does it matter?”

But, of course, to some it does. A lot. Buying a home means you’re investing not just in a property but in a neighborhood, in the city. A lot of money is riding on your choice, both when you buy and when you sell. Perception is not the same as reality.

For me, I’ve used “South End” and “Roxbury” at different times for the area between Mass Ave and Melnea Cass Blvd. Roxbury doesn’t always work because I think of that as Dudley Square and points around there. I went to Northeastern University in the 1980′s and we always considered the school to be in the Fenway. Since then, they’ve invested millions in development that’s turned the campus around from Huntington to Tremont and Columbus, and now it’s as much a part of Roxbury as the other neighborhoods.

So, I don’t know.

Image above from the Boston Public Library‘s flickr photo stream.