If you are a college student looking for off-campus housing for the coming semester and are planning to live within a 1 mile radius from your school, brace yourself!

RadPad, a startup specializing in apartment searches, compiled a list of?50 universities that have the most expensive off-campus apartments.?Boston area schools took up a full fifth of the chart. The rankings are based on the average rent for a 2 bedroom apartment within 1 mile from the campus.

Condo prices all across Boston are skyrocketing as the spring market kicks off. Urban areas, from upscale to affordable, are leading the charge.

Somerville, Jamaica Plain and increasingly upscale Charlestown saw some of the biggest increases as did Brighton, Medford and West Roxbury.

And it’s not just rent prices that are on the rise. Sales are up by double digits in the same areas as well. The median condo price in Massachusetts went up 10% in March, clocking in at $320,000 which is more than the median price of a single-family home ($315,000).

While trends come and go, hopefully the zero-energy mindset is here to stay. A zero-energy home is a space that relies on exceptional energy conservation and on-site renewable energy to meet heating, cooling and energy needs. As the movement continues to gain traction around the country, here is a closer look at what it really means to own a “zero-energy home”.

This property includes absolutely breathtaking views of Lake Tahoe and is listed for $59,000,000.

Good morning and happy Wednesday!

Here’s a summary of recent transactions and personnel news within Greater Boston’s real estate community.

1.    Chevron Partners has acquired the historic Sears Crescent building in Boston’s Government Center neighborhood from Copley Investments for $23.8 million. The 50,300-square-foot brick-and-beam building is fully leased to 14 tenants and is the third acquisition for Chevron Partners in Boston since [...]

Have you ever wondered what towns in the U.S. are currently booming? A new list from realtor.com® unveils the top 10 hot spots. These towns are demonstrating some of strongest growth in jobs, household formation, and housing starts across the country. Every market on the list has experienced between one and five times the average job growth of the top 100 counties in the country.

From Boston’s Financial District to the suburbs, housing prices in Massachusetts have been rising everywhere. Jamaica Plain was known to be an affordable area but the housing market in the neighborhood has experienced a significant increase in prices over the past few decades.

The stunning properties in Beacon Hill have always been the centre of attraction for the housing the housing market in Boston. Recently, a 136 year old townhouse located at 9 Lime St. in Beacon Hill has become available for sale at an asking price of $5,499,000.

Westbrook Partners has arrangements to construct a 17 story, 250 suite hotel in Chinatown, and will be filing its proposal to the city officials.

The hotel project would be 181 ft. high at 79 Essex St., a 8,095 sq. ft. corner space at the cross-section of Essex and Oxford boulevards that right now is home to a warehouse and office building.

Suffolk Construction (the biggest general contracting firm in Massachusetts) is preparing for a $22 million expansion of its headquarters in Roxbury to accommodate its projected growth by 10% in headcount.

A 38,000 sq. ft. expansion is proposed at 79 Allerton St, a location adjacent to the companies current headquarters.

Here are some proposals from 6 developers who are competing to redevelop the Winthrop Sq. area(a humungous garage in the Financial District).

Proposal No. 1: Accordia Partners: Proposed a 725-ft, 57-story tower spreading over 768,600 ft. The tower would incorporate 188 apartment units, a hotel with 280 rooms, a black box theatre with 175 seats, an observatory deck on the 56th floor, a restaurant on the 57th floor with stunning views of Boston, 5,300 sq. ft. of street level dining space and 2,638 sq. ft. of retail space with a underground parking structure. The proposed development would include 34,000 sq. ft. of community and civic space.

The people of Boston are genuinely grateful for the recent reopening of an amazingly renovated Government Center T station in the heart of downtown Boston. Well, it finally happened!

But what about the other transportation projects that have been in the planning stage for a prolonged period of time? There are 5 of those that the area could urgently utilize.

Based on a recent report by the Associated General Contractors of America, there has been a double digit gain in employment in the Greater Boston Area in the construction industry. 61,400 workers were employed in February by Greater Boston. This is a 10% increase from 55,600 last year.