RottenNeighbor.com has launched a map-based mashup that helps you find bad neighbors before you move so you don’t regret the purchase of your new house, home, condo or apartment. Great Concept.

Inman News is reporting that discount broker Foxtons is laying off 350 of its 380 employees and may file for bankruptcy protection. This is a stunning turn for a company that was only recently a finalist for the 2007 Inman News Innovator Award. A declining market has hit many parts of the country and many properties are now sitting on the market 2 and 3 times as long as they normally would. For brokers this means advertising expenditures are running rampent while income is slowing to a trickle. Foxtons may not be the last to fall to a liquidity crunch.

Last week Bank of America raised its ATM fees for non BofA customers to $3. The bank says the surcharges for non-customers will make its ATM network, the largest in the U.S., more convenient for its customers. Oh yeah the higher fees will DEFINITELY make the ATM network more convenient. This is a ridiculous statement and obviously the increase in fees has only one purpose… compelling non-customer to open BofA accounts.

Here’s a proposition… anyone interested in putting together an ad supported network of ATMs? It worked for 1-800-FREE-411 so why not ATM machines. If you don’t like that idea you can sign up with Schwab Bank they pick up the tab on all foriegn ATM fees.

- CNNMoney.com

Today, Governor Deval Patrick unvield his highly anticipated plan to legalize casino gaming in Massachusetts. According to his proposal, three 10-year licenses would be put up for competitive bid each entitling the winner to build a “resort style” casino in one of the following locations: Southeastern Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts, and metropolitan Boston. Rumors are already flying that Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos is scouting a downtown Boston location.

Patrick says the casinos can bring significant economic benefits to the Commonwealth, with manageable impact on communities. He estimates that the hotels, the entertainment, golf courses, etc that would be build in conjunction with the new casinos would create 20,000 permanent jobs by 2012. If Governor Patrick pulls this off, the drastic change in the state’s economic outlook will have a profound impact on local real estate values.

Minor detail: The plan still needs to be approved by the Legislature and could meet significant resistance. Doh!

From here to here…

Thanks to the sleuths over at BostonREB.com and BostonHerald.com we now know your lovable QB Tom Brady Jr. bought a building at 310 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. He has split the building into three condos and is currently offering two for sale via Campion & Company (click here). According to the Herald Tom will keep the third condo (comprised of the top two floors) for himself. I decided to do a little more digging and here’s what I found…

The One He Leaves Behind: 314 Commonwealth Ave - Unit 2 in the Back Bay. This is a 3400 sqft residence in the Burrage Mansion on the corner of Hereford St. If memory serves me, we all read about Tom buying here a few years back. This condo was put up for sale in May with an asking price of $5.39 million and went under agreement only a few weeks later. Anticipated closing date is January 2008. (* Tom paid $4.1 million in 2004)

Party Palace: 47 Tilden Commons Dr - Unit 47 in Quincy. This is a 2200 sqft corner residence in the Marina Bay complex. I think we’ve all heard the rumors about about Patriots players living / partying in the Marina Bay complex and its strip of bars & restaurants. (* Tom paid $625k in 2003)

Too Tired to Drive Home From Work 8 Cedar Street in Norfolk. A single family bungalow located near Mirror lake just West of Foxborough. Bought in 1988 with no recorded sales price & owned jointly by one Thomas E. Brady Jr. & Mary E. Brady. Anyone know who this is?

The Getaway: Tom just bought a house / land in Sebago, Maine

For the record Tom potentially owns a number of other Massachusetts properties but like 310 Beacon Street they are held in the form of a Limited Liability Corporation (310 Beacon Street, LLC) which for the purpose of this post make them impossible to ID.

Last week, almost 10 years after submitting its first letter of intent, Ikea presented plans for a store in Assembly Square to the Somerville Planning Board. Nearly all of the residents who testified at the Planning Board hearing favored the project.

IKEA is just the first phase of what is expected to be a 50-acre $1.3 billion, transit-oriented mixed-use development that would feature 1.75 million square feet of office space, 852,000 square feet of retail, a cinema, a 200-room hotel, 2,100 apartments and condominiums, and a new MBTA Orange Line stop (by 2013) between the Sullivan Square and Wellington stations

The issue being debated around Somerville is whether the impact of the traffic that a monstrous Ikea would bring might negate the effect of the $15 million in real estate taxes and 14,000 new permanent jobs the project is estimated to create. When the furniture store opened its first Bay State store in 2005 in Stoughton the traffic forced Route 24 to be closed on several occasions, but since then the traffic has been “manageable.

Everyone always wants to buy in the next hot neighborhood. Well here’s your chance. East Cambridge will be the next “South End”. Combining affordable residential and retail prices with a rapidly growing job base (ever expanding MIT, MGH’s constant turnover and Google’s massive Cambridge expansion) and an incredibly central location (less than a mile from the Boston city line, encompassing Kendal Square and including both red and green line T stops), East Cambridge is poised to transition away from its heritage as a working-class enclave and become a vibrant neighborhood attracting young professionals and empty nesters from Boston and the suburbs. Search all East Cambridge Real Estate for Sale.

Luxury condo developments in East Cambridge:

• One First - already sold two-thirds of its 159 Phase I units
• Glass Factory - already all sold out its 107 units
• Regatta Riverview - already sold 427 of 436 units
• University Residential Communities - a co-op reserved for faculty, staff and alumni of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Massachusetts General Hospital
• Munroe Court - a high-end townhouse complex behind the Cambridge courthouse
• NorthPoint - construction has started on the first 230 units of the massive 2700 unit project.

Recreational Parks in East Cambridge:

• A five-acre park being built by the city
• A Riverpark opening along the Charles River
• A 10-acre park that’s part of the Northpoint project.

Notable retail in East Cambridge:

• Pugs Bar & Grill - recently underwent a $2 million dollar upgrade
• CambridgeSide Galleria - Apple Store, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble & more
• New Deal Fish Market - fresh sushi salmon & whole ocean fish
• Mayflower Poultry Shop - hormone-free chicken and super-jumbo eggs
• East Side Bar & Grille - steak tips and Italian-American fare
• Helmand - renown Afghan restaurant
• Dante - named by Bon Appetit magazine last year as one of the nation’s 10 hottest restaurants

Public transportation in East Cambridge:

• Red Line’s Kendall Square station
• Green Line’s Lechmere stop

Companies in East Cambridge:

• Novartis
• Pfizer
• Boston Scientific
• Genzyme
• Biogen
• Second Life
• Microsoft
• ZipCar

Recent Press for East:

• Retailers branch out to attract new crowd
• A downtown vibe at a discount price
• Google finds space for Hub expansion

Pappas Enterprises, who brought you the Court Square Press & Macallen Buildings, has obtained approval from the Boston Redevelopment Authority to move forward on a new South Boston condo project, Leachmore Point. Located at 11 West Broadway, Leachmore Point will be a 64-unit condo development (+ 4,700 square feet of first floor retail) with an eight-story brick and glass facade. For all you environmentalists out there, Leachmore Point will be “green construction” and will include a 2,000 square foot pocket park on the roof, cisterns that collect rainwater runoff, and a low energy LED lighting system.

Ground is scheduled to break on the project next spring, with units expected to be ready for market 18 months later. According to the Boston Business Journal, one-, two- and three-bedroom units will range between 850 square feet and 1,400 square feet and four penthouses with the best views could carry $1 million price tags.

It looks like a great project but be wary, two other approved projects 50 West Broadway and 150 Dorchester Ave. will bring nearly 200 more condo units to the same Broadway neighborhood. Thats a lot of new units hitting the market at the same time in a down market. The supply and demand curves could easily get out of whack making it tough to recoup your investment (at least over the short term).

Foreclosure on a property can be severely damaging to your credit, current living situation, local community, and equity, not to mention your pride, so if possible AVOID.

Here are some good tips brought to you by Quicken Loans.

Concord Place at Westford is a new 16-unit townhouse community in Westford, MA that surrounds a quarter-acre green with a gazebo, backs up to conservation land and is priced in the low $200s per square foot.

The complex is located about a mile from a Route 495 intersection for easy highway access to Boston (about 28 miles) and surrounding suburbs. It’s a quarter mile from shops and restaurants along Route 110 in Westford and about a mile from the town center.

The homes at Concord Place are developed by the Page & Trahan Companies and built by their construction company Granite Rock Construction. They are backed by a full one year warranty and six full years of structural coverage insured by the Residential Warranty Company.

- BostonHerald.com