Hiring splurges, but consumers stay frugal

The economy still has some trouble spots, but analysts are seeing signs of a gathering rebound that could lift off if consumers decide to open their wallets and jump in with both feet.

"The economy is improving and corporate profits are strong. They grew a little more than 8 percent in the third quarter," said Paul Edelstein of Lexington-based IHS Global Insight.

The job market also is showing signs of gains, with the Labor Department reporting yesterday that employers added 203,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate fell to
7 percent, a five-year low. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 198 points.

Boston University School of Management executive-in-residence Mark T. Williams, a former Federal Reserve Bank examiner, said stock market prices are indicators of future expectations in the economy.

"The stock markets across the board are hitting new highs, suggesting blue skies ahead," Williams said.

A key factor, though, is how willing consumers are to spend. Consumer confidence in December hit its highest level in five months, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary report released yesterday. But retail numbers show shoppers spent less over the Thanksgiving weekend than the year before.

"In general, consumers can express frustration, but keep on spending as if nothing is wrong," said Edelstein. We've seen that many times."

Edelstein said the improving job numbers can hide some dark clouds, as well.

"The unemployment rate is one number and it is falling more than expected, but it's falling because people are leaving the job market," Edelstein said. "It's schizophrenic, but overall the labor market is improving."

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Fort Point loft is perfect combination

One of the largest condos in South Boston's Fort Point district, this 3,009-square-foot loft was designed by well-known Hub architect David Hacin.

Hacin, who also designed the FP3 condo complex and the District Hall innovation center in the neighborhood, combined two fourth-floor units in Fort Point Place, a 126-unit complex at 21 Wormwood St. that was converted to condos in 2000-01.

The combined Unit 415 was made into a three-bedroom corner loft with a large, open living/kitchen area and adjacent dining room, and a large master bedroom suite with dressing/exercise room. It has original wood beams and exposed brick and ductwork throughout, as well as maple floors. The architect has designed built-ins, room dividers, shelving and pocket doors that enhance the space. The condo, which includes two deeded parking spaces, one in a garage below, is on the market for $1,649,000.

The complex features contemporary art in the lobby and has a semi-industrial look, with jelly jar lighting in the common hallways and stainless-steel doors on the units.

Unit 415 has two entrances and foyers, each with closets for two gas-fired heating and cooling systems as well as built-ins for clothes storage. Both foyers lead to a wide central hallway with wide-plank maple flooring that is featured throughout the unit.

At one end of the hallway sits an open kitchen/living area with eight large windows with Financial District and Seaport District views. The track-lighted living area has wood-beam ceilings, maple floors and exposed brick walls and ductwork.

The adjacent kitchen has a large built-in at one end, as well as a central custom-made bi-level wood island with a breakfast bar that seats four. There are white-painted wood cabinets, including several that are pantry-sized, above and below Uba Tuba granite counters. Appliances are Jenn-Air stainless steel, including a refrigerator, dishwasher and four-burner gas stove with microwave above.

Behind the living area is the third bedroom, now used as formal dining room, a long narrow space with brick walls and one window and a pocket-door entrance. The room feels a little claustrophobic, especially with the pocket door closed.

But the other two bedrooms are open and airy, particularly the master bedroom suite off the far end of the hall, which has pocket doors to close it off from the rest of the loft if desired. The sunny master bedroom has four large windows with nice views of Fort Point and the Seaport District. It also has maple floors, wood-beam ceilings, brick walls and has track lighting and built-in storage areas. A curving custom-made room divider has bookcases on the bedroom side and wardrobe storage shelves on the other, which has been partitioned off into a dressing/exercise room. Adjacent to the dressing area sits the maple-floored master bathroom with two large closets, one of which holds a stacked Asko washer and dryer. There's a white ceramic-tiled shower with glass doors and rainhead fixture and a cultured marble-topped vanity.

The second bedroom, currently used as a den/family room, is also good-sized with exposed brick walls and built-ins as well as a divider that creates a dressing area. There's a home office area fronting on the hallway, and this whole area can also be closed off if desired.

Across the hall is a second full bathroom with a pocket-door entrance and maple floors. This bathroom has a stainless-steel vessel sink, a white subway-tile shower with glass doors and two large closets.

The unit comes with two deeded parking spaces, one in a garage below the building and the other in an outdoor lot behind the building. There is no common outdoor space, but there is a pocket park across the street and a small urban market on the building's first floor.

Broker: Richard Greer of Kimball Borgo Real Estate at 857-919-4368.

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Sturdy Swede quite sporty

Always on the fringe of the sports sedan market, Volvo hurtles into the mix with the impressively reworked 2014 S60 T6 R-Design.

When mentioning the class led by luminaries BMW, Audi and Mercedes -Benz, the sturdy Swede rarely gets a nod. But the S60 R needs to be considered when test-driving the field.

Sporting a 3-liter inline six cylinder twin-scroll turbo producing 325 horsepower and all-wheel-drive geared through a six-speed automatic transmission, the Volvo is a quick and powerful machine. Spinning on blacked-out 19-inch Platinum Edition Ixion spoked wheels, the low-profile tires confidently cut into the road, gaining traction from the race-inspired front MacPherson struts and multilink rear suspension. The firm driver feedback through the rack-and-pinion steering not only gives the driver a confident ride but also makes handling the car a breeze.

The turbo purrs to life and needs little prompting to get you scooting comfortably and quickly down the road. The upgraded blue digital display lets you know when the turbo is demanding more, although the seat of your pants is a better indicator. Premium gas mileage for this sporty Scandinavian is 18 miles per gallon around town and 25 on the highway.

Aside from the mechanicals, what helps separate this car from wannabe sports sedans is the interior refinements highlighted by elegant piped leather seats — perhaps some of the more comfortable I've sat in — clean intuitive controls, brushed aluminum trim, and a robust 160-watt 8-speaker sound system. A 7-inch LCD monitor with back up camera, blind spot monitoring, Xenon active bending headlights and a sunroof round out some of the details of the car.

Sweeping body lines flow from the rakishly lowered front end with a small grille into a well-tied-together revamped rear end accented with a small spoiler, giving the sedan a striking presence on the road. The rear seats suffer some though and passengers will be a touch cramped. The trunk space is limited but both rear seats can fold down to make for extra room. There's also a ski slot through the armrest.

The base MSRP of $42,700 for the R-Design quickly gets to $49,315 with the Platinum Package, blind-spot monitoring and heated seats added in, and this is the one spot I'll pick on. Oddly, a car that has always led the industry in safety innovation and includes "City Safe" stopping does not include blind-spot monitoring or back-up warnings as part of its base cost. And extra for heated seats? In a car from the north country? After all, these are quite common features in even lower-priced cars.

The R-Design is the top of three trim levels although you can get a nice driver in a base S60 for about $33,000. I really enjoyed driving this car and, despite some expensive options, this is a good value if you're considering a sports sedan.

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A Whirl-Wynn of Hub meetings

Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn made a low-key visit to the Hub Monday, taking meetings with legislators, including the rep who authored the state's gaming legislation, and state Gaming Commission investigators, whose probes led him to decry Bay State background checks as heavy-handed.

Wynn met with Ways and Means chairman Brian Dempsey, the Haverhill rep who partly authored the gaming legislation, as well as Sen. Sal DiDomenico of Everett, where Wynn wants to build the 
$1.4 billion resort. The Sin City titan also was scheduled to speak on the phone with Senate majority leader Stanley Rosenberg of Amherst, another key force in passage of the gaming law, but that conversation did not happen, the Herald has learned.

It was not clear what was discussed, or why Wynn would meet with lawmakers who don't have a dog in the Everett casino fight. Dempsey and Rosenburg did not return calls for comment yesterday. Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver would only characterize the visit as "providing an update of our project to legislators, a discussion about the industry in general and the entry of gaming into the commonwealth."

"You heard Mr. Wynn's comments before the Gaming Commission last time he appeared," Weaver said when asked what Wynn said during the meetings. "It was helping (legislators) understand how the process moves forward."

Wynn has publicly ripped the Gaming Commission as "freshmen" with an "unbelievable preoccupation that maybe a gangster is going to get in." In October, Wynn told the commission he was "scared to death" he'd be vulnerable to sanctions on the basis of "murky" investigations into his Macau operation.

DiDomenico said Wynn stopped by his office unannounced Monday, and stressed what his resort could do for Everett.

"There was nothing I could say I definitely gained from it, other than he was coming to say, 'Hey, we are going to your community and we're going to do good things,'" DiDomenico said. "It was quick. Done, over, see ya later."

Gaming Commission spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said Wynn asked investigators Monday to set up a meeting with the commission. Wynn representatives will appear before the commission next Friday to outline a land ownership plan, and on Dec. 16 to determine if the company is suitable to apply for the sole eastern Massachusetts casino license. A proposal by Suffolk Downs and Mohegan Sun in Revere is also in the running.

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Experts: MGM’s debt could thwart casino’s chances

The head of MGM Resorts International yesterday said he feels confident the state Gaming Commission will find MGM suitable to continue with the licensing process to open a casino in Springfield, but two gaming experts said they wouldn't be so sure.

At a Boston College Chief Executives' Club luncheon, James Murren told reporters he was "excited" about Monday's hearing before the commission, five months after Springfield residents voted in favor of MGM's proposed casino.

"I have every reason to expect that we'll be found suitable," Murren said. "I have found the commonwealth to be very deliberate, quite transparent, professional ... which gives me the confidence, combined with the fact that I know the facts at hand with my own company."

MGM is $13 billion in debt, however. And in October, another casino applicant, Caesars Entertainment Corp., withdrew from its partnership with Suffolk Downs after the commission's investigators recommended against a license, partly because of Caesars' $23.7 billion debt.

"It would be interesting to see how (Murren's) going to finance (an $851 million) casino," said the Rev. Richard McGowan, a Boston College professor who has written three books on gaming.

New Jersey investigators in 2009 raised red flags about MGM's Macau business partner, Pansy Ho, and her father's alleged ties to organized crime.

Since then, MGM has gone public in Macau Murren said, and Ho, who sits on the board, is now worth more than her father.

"My guess is MGM is going to have the same trouble they had in New Jersey," said Whittier Law School professor I. Nelson Rose.

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How sellers, buyers can close deals faster

Real estate agents see it all — from unmade beds to overstuffed garages to the "What were they thinking?" decor.

Over the years, they learn why some houses sell while others linger on the market, and why some promising buyers never make it to the closing table. They know how to get a better deal on the mortgage, and how much the other agents stand to make on your home.

The good news is, they want to share.

The information is useful whether you're a buyer, a seller or both.

In today's market, sellers are again optimistic about the value and price of their homes — "but buyers aren't," says Ron Phipps, principal with Warwick, R.I.-based Phipps Realty, and past president of the National Association of Realtors.

"Your challenge as a seller is to price the house so that it is compelling," he says.

What does that mean?

"Set a price slightly below market value," he says. Just "a fraction."

For example: If similar homes in your neighborhood are clustered around $210,000, you might price yours at $200,000 or $198,000, he says.

"The longer a house is on the market, the less likely you are to get fair value," Phipps says. "So you really want to position yourself to be the one that sells, not the one that languishes."

And the adage of not wanting to leave any money on the table? Still valid.

If you're also buying a home, and you already have cash in hand, thanks to a fast sale, "that puts you in a very powerful position," Phipps says.

For many potential buyers, frugality ends the minute they get pre-approved for a mortgage, Phipps says. That's when they start running up the cards and opening new lines of credit to buy things for their home-to-be.

But that pre-approval letter is just one of the first steps in the home buying marathon, not the finish line.

Just before closing, a lender will re-examine a prospective buyer's financial situation — complete with a recent copy of the credit history and other updated information.

If those numbers have changed for the worse (salary decrease, higher card balances, new lines of credit), then the applicant could get clocked with a higher interest rate or even lose the loan. "The number of buyers who get denied is significant," Phipps says.

The moral? Never get new loans or start using credit cards more heavily until after you've actually closed on the home.

Even better, retain your frugality until you've been in the home for a few months and have a good sense of how homeownership affects your finances, Phipps says.

If you're selling a home, it's important to understand the timeline, says Jeffry Wiren, principal broker with Re/Max Equity Group and past president of the Portland, Ore., Metropolitan Association of Realtors.

Underestimating the time it takes — and building a schedule around those unrealistic expectations — adds stress, Wiren says.

Wiren's schedule breakdown:

 Getting your home in shape: two weeks

 Average time on the market (varies widely with location and price): 2 1⁄2 to three months

 Negotiating after an 
offer: one week

 Preparing to close (assuming a traditional transaction): 30 to 45 days

A smart seller allows a 
minimum of four to six months to sell, Wiren says.

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Little faith in Obamacare among under-30s

A majority of the nation's 18- to 29-year-olds believe costs will rise and quality of care will fall under President Obama's health care reform law, and fewer than three in 10 who are uninsured say they will enroll in coverage through an exchange if and when they are eligible, according to a new national poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics.

The Internet survey of 2,089 millennials found that a majority disapprove of the law, regardless of whether it is referred to as the Affordable Care Act (56 percent) or Obamacare (57 percent).

By a margin of more than 2 to 1, those surveyed believe that the quality of their care will get worse under the health reform law. And between 50 percent (when the ACA is used) and 51 percent (when Obamacare is used) believe the cost of care will increase.

"I wasn't surprised that opinions were negative, but I was surprised at the depth of the negativity, especially when you step back and say this is the demographic that helped get (Obama) elected, and this law is his signature policy achievement," said Trey Grayson, the institute's director. "The administration is going to have to do a better job at selling this."

Among the 22 percent of millennials polled who do not have health insurance, 29 percent say they will enroll in the program described as Obamacare, and 25 percent say the same of the ACA.

Fifty-two percent of those surveyed would recall all members of Congress if it were possible, and 47 percent would recall President Obama.

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Plans escalate for big Quincy Market upgrade

Faneuil Hall Marketplace would be set for dramatic changes to its historic Quincy Market building — including the addition of escalators — under preliminary design plans that manager Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. is floating with the city.

The New York real estate investment firm is proposing a redesign of Quincy Market that includes a pair of new, two-story tenant additions encased in glass "sheds," according to an 80-page document submitted to the Boston Landmarks Commission. One of the new spaces is designated for a Uniqlo store, the Japanese fast-fashion retailer that's on an East and West Coast expansion spree, according to the documents.

"It's a preliminary design that we wanted feedback on," said Joe Press, Ashkenazy's senior vice president of asset management.

Plans the firm is scheduled to present at the Landmarks Commission's meeting Tuesday call for the removal of "temporary tenant installations." But Kristen Keefe, Faneuil Hall Marketplace's general manager, could not say whether they include pushcarts or other vendors.

Ashkenazy purchased the city-owned tourist center's lease for $136 million in 2011. The city's blessing was based in large part on Ashkenazy's promise of a capital investment in the property that included upgrades to draw locals.

But the city has expressed frustration with the firm's slow pace on a master plan to redevelop the property — a plan it initially had said would come in the spring of 2012. Ashkenazy since has hired Boston's Elkus Manfredi Architects, Watertown planning and design firm Sasaki Associates and New York's Biederman Redevelopment Ventures Corp. to help create the master plan.

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The Ticker

Owner explores sale of Providence Journal

The Dallas-based parent company of the Providence Journal, A.H. Belo, has hired a consultant to explore the sale of the paper, the company said in a statement.

The Journal is the only newspaper owned by Belo outside of Texas, after the sale of the Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif., last month.

The company said the eventual sale of the Journal is not guaranteed, and is dependent on finding an appropriate buyer.

MGM Springfield inks deal with Ludlow

MGM Springfield has signed its first surrounding community agreement with the town of Ludlow, the casino giant said. The town will receive $50,000 up front and a minimum of $100,000 per year, according to MGM. MGM is proposing an $800 million casino in the South End of Springfield. The project was endorsed by Springfield voters in July.

State income tax to drop Jan. 1

State Revenue Commissioner Amy Pitter has certified that the state's income tax will be lowered from the current 5.25 percent to 5.2 percent Jan. 1.

In a letter yesterday to Secretary of Administration and Finance Glen Shor, Pitter said tax collections have exceeded benchmarks and have met the threshold required under state law to trigger an automatic .05 percent reduction in the income tax. Officials say the tax cut will result in an estimated loss of $65 million in the fiscal year that runs through July 1.

Robot can solve Rubik's Cube

Humanoid robot Baxter, made by Boston-based Rethink Robotics, can now solve a Rubik's Cube, the company said. In a video posted online, the robot used primarily for monotonous manufacturing tasks recognizes the different colors of the cube and then figures out the necessary steps to solve the puzzle.

TODAY

• Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
• Commerce Department releases third-quarter gross domestic product.
• European Central Bank's governing council meets to set monetary policy for the eurozone.

TOMORROW

• Labor Department releases employment data for November.
• Commerce Department releases personal income and spending for October.

THE SHUFFLE

• Marjorie Cappucci, left, has joined Needham Bank's Medfield office as branch manager. She has more than 17 years of banking experience.
• Snom, a developer of IP desktop business phones, has appointed Brian J. Kelley as chief executive officer. Kelley had previously been managing snom's business in the Americas.

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Hub-Beijing travel ‘traffic’ spurs flights

Hainan Airlines' move to start nonstop flights between Boston and China was spurred by the already large number of travelers between the two destinations and the expectation for future growth, a company official said.

"There's a tremendous amount of traffic between Boston and China because of the educational travel, the leisure travel and the business travel in both directions," said Joel Chusid, Hainan's U.S. executive director. "It's a good thing for both economies. The market is also growing. We expect (it) is going to be further stimulated because of the nonstop service."

The Chinese airline confirmed yesterday that it plans to start direct flights between Logan International Airport and Beijing's Capital International Airport on June 20, as the Herald first reported last week. The flights initially will be four times weekly.

Hainan, Massport officials and Gov. Deval Patrick are set to announce the new service today. "Nonstop service from Boston to Beijing will open up new commercial and economic opportunities, and I thank Hainan Airlines for their partnership in achieving this significant milestone," Patrick said in a statement.

Hainan will start taking reservations within a few days for flights aboard Boeing 787s that will take a little more than 13 hours.

"It means a great deal because there are a large number of high-tech and not so high-tech companies in the Boston area that have very important trade relations with Chinese companies," said attorney Samuel Shafner, co-chairman of Burns & Levinson LLP's China practice. "The ability to easily make that trip may reduce a temptation for those companies to be located in markets like New York, where they have a direct flight."

Hainan, whose first nonstop U.S. service started in Seattle in 2008, had talked of Boston being its first U.S. destination since at least 2005. In his 2006 state of the city address, Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced Hainan expected to start air cargo service between Boston and Beijing and Shanghai that summer and passenger service that December. That plan was derailed by delays in the delivery and certification of the 787, Chusid said.

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