Central Mass., home of the housing bust

Feb 15, 2012 | 0 comments

Central Mass., home of the housing bust
By Jenifer B. McKim | Boston Globe | FEBRUARY 15, 2012

  ATHOL - How far have home values dropped in this Central Massachusetts town? The answer sounds like the punch line to a joke, but no one is laughing: They’ve eroded so much that you can buy a house for about the cost of a Toyota Camry.

“If [prices] go much lower, they will be giving them away,’’ said Matt Tarlin, an investor from Needham who has bought three homes in Athol and nearby Orange, where values are similarly depressed, and houses sell for as low as $20,000.

Athol’s real estate decline has been fueled by a glut of foreclosed properties and high unemployment. The median price of a single-family home in Athol has fallen by more than 50 percent since Massachusetts values peaked in 2005, to just above $78,000 - the lowest in the state.

That compares with about a 19 percent decline in values statewide during the same period and a median price of $286,000, according to Warren Group, a real estate tracking firm.

Building a Better Boston: WCCP 2012 Chatham Forum [part 1]

Feb 14, 2012 | 0 comments

By Chad O'Connor, Adjunct Professor, Northeastern University Super Bowl weekend kicked off with a star-studded retreat focusing on Boston’s future. World Class Cities Partnership (WCCP), in collaboration with City to City Boston and Boston World Partnerships, planned the 2012 Chatham Forum for engaged Greater Boston citizens to learn, discuss, renew friendships and expand networks. To quote from WCCP Executive Director Mike Lake’s invitation, the Forum sought to update everyone about “opportunities for the Boston region in relation to innovation, entrepreneurship and adapting best practices from around the world to strengthen economic development in our region.” In addition, attendees participated in Massachusetts’ first Urban Excellence unConference with “Solution Sessions” to share ideas and projects on economic development, innovation and entrepreneurship.

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Data for decision makers

Feb 14, 2012 | 0 comments

February 13, 2012

Self-proclaimed “data geeks” descended upon Northeastern’s campus recently for a conference focusing on the use of data to support communities and advance societal change. The university’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs teamed up with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) and the Boston Foundation’s Boston Indicators Project to host the event in late January.

In one of several “how-to” workshops, Stephanie Pollack, assistant director of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban & Regional Policy at Northeastern, explained the significance of data in the decision making process of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA), the system of subways, buses and trains that affects a wide-reaching population across the state.

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Recapturing the American Dream

Feb 9, 2012 | 0 comments

MassINC is proud to present "Recapturing the American Dream: Meeting the Challenges of the Bay State’s Lost Decade." This joint project with the Center for Labor Market Studies was made possible by the generous support of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Partners Health Care. More so than any previous report, this research sheds light on the economic well-being of workers at a moment when public attention is hyper-focused on policymaking to rekindle the promise of the American Dream for those struggling to join the middle class and remain in its ranks.

The data presented in this report show that the last decade was extremely hard for Bay State residents. For the first time since World War II, the Commonwealth ended the decade with fewer jobs and families went without a raise. The report describes how this sour economy created four key hurdles that Massachusetts must now overcome.

MassINC’s mission is to support the vitality of the state’s middle class by providing solid, objective research to inform public policy. This is the third time since our founding that we have paused to look carefully at how residents are faring in their pursuit of the American Dream. While the news is discouraging, we hope that these data encourage productive dialogue around the future of our commonwealth.

Read the full Report
Read the Executive Summary

Missing: 5.4 million workers

Feb 8, 2012 | 0 comments

By Katie Johnston | Boston Globe Staff | February 8, 2012

Millions of Americans have vanished from the US labor force in the past three years, many of them so discouraged by long, fruitless job searches that they have given up looking for work, convinced that no employer wants them, according to a new study.

Among the missing are teenagers who have stopped looking for mall jobs that are now going to college graduates, and laid-off 60-year-olds who have reluctantly retired as employers turned to younger, cheaper talent. Some are at home, supported by spouses. Others are in college or training programs, hoping to gain marketable skills. A few have ended up homeless.

Despite the steady decline in unemployment recently, the study is a reminder of how far the economy has to go. The Labor Department reported Friday that the official unemployment rate slipped to 8.3 percent in January, but when labor force dropouts and the underemployed - those working part time because they can’t find full-time jobs - are included, the rate doubles to about 17 percent.

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Frances Moore Lappé to speak on campus February 15th

Feb 7, 2012 | 0 comments

Food, Ecology, Democracy, Justice: What we Eat Matters
Frances Moore Lappé
Author, Diet for a Small Planet, EcoMind, and 16 other books
Founder, Small Planet Institute
Wednesday, February 15th | 6:00 to 8:00pm | West Village F, Room 20 | RSVP
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Barcelona Success Yields Model For Boston Innovation District

Feb 7, 2012 | 0 comments

Brains In Spain Thrive In Entrepreneur Eco-System

Monday, February 6, 2012 | Global Enterprise

By Michael Lake and Robert Buckley Special To Banker & Tradesman

The Boston region has the opportunity to leverage the development growth at Kendall Square and Longwood Medical area while building the South Boston innovation district and, accordingly, shape the future of our region’s innovation economy.

The challenge lies in how to most effectively attract and retain talent in order to create a thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem. To succeed, we need to look at successful projects around the globe utilizing innovation-related practices.

Mass. jobless rate falls to 6.8%, lowest in three years

Jan 23, 2012 | 0 comments

January 20, 2012|By Erin Ailworth | Link to article at boston.com   The Massachusetts unemployment rate last month fell below 7 percent for the first time in three years, but employers cut jobs - a sign that the state’s economy may be slowing after a burst of growth early last year. Economists said a slowdown, or rather a leveling off, is to be expected after the state enjoyed some of the most robust job gains in years during the first half of 2011. >>

Financial Crisis Speaker Series hosted by Professor Kwoka

Jan 23, 2012 | 0 comments

John Kwoka, Finnegan Professor of Economics, invites all members of the university community to attend special sessions of his class on “Bubbles, Busts, and Bailouts: Market and Regulatory Failures in the Financial Crisis.”

These sessions feature prominent guest speakers, including Vikram Mansharamani, Andrew Sum, Lawrence White, Robert Kuttner, and F.M. Scherer.

Classes are from 2:50 to 4:30 and will take place in Shillman 335. >>

3Qs: A window into the U.S. economy

Jan 11, 2012 | 0 comments

from News@Northeastern

2011 was a tough year for the U.S. economy, with continued high rates of unemployment, surging food and gas prices and concern over struggling European economies in countries such as Greece and Italy. With an eye toward the future, we asked economics professor William Dickens to analyze the U.S. economic outlook in 2012.

What are the biggest obstacles on the road to economic recovery in the U.S.?

There is recovery and then there is real recovery. Economic activity reached its low point in June 2009 and we have been in "recovery" since then. But this recovery hasn't felt much like a recovery because unemployment has remained stubbornly high. Recently unemployment has dropped a bit, and a few hundred thousand jobs have been added, but this hides the fact that job growth has been nowhere near large enough to accommodate our growing population. >>