A government watchdog says participation in a federal program to help struggling homeowners is “anemic”.

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said the program has failed “to put an appreciable dent in foreclosure filings.”

That assessment isn’t surprising to local foreclosure prevention counselors and attorneys who work with homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure.

In Massachusetts, foreclosure activity hasn’t really improved. Just yesterday, The Warren Group reported that foreclosures more than doubled in June from the same month last year and year-to-date foreclosures have jumped 57 percent.

Petitions to foreclose, which mark the first step in the foreclosure process, looked like they were on the decline over the last few months. But for the first half of the year, they’re only down 3.4 percent from the same months in 2009.

When does a house size go from big to too big? That’s a question I’m sure planners have been asking themselves for several years as they’ve watched McMansions spring up and home sizes balloon.

It looks like Wellesley planners were facing that question recently. The Boston Globe reports that the Wellesley Planning Board has approved plans for a 15,000-square-foot mansion. The board has asked the owner to add 30-foot evergreen trees to maintain the privacy of abutting homes and a special rainwater collection system.

Apparently, the home size was scaled back from 16,838 square feet to address the board’s concerns. I know that property owners have rights and they should be able to do what town rules and boards allow. But really, 15,000 square feet? That sounds like more like an inn, not a home.

Wellesley has been grappling with the issue of super-sized homes for years. Hundreds of homes have been torn down in Wellesley during the last decade and a significant number of them have been replaced with multimillion dollar homes that are often thousands of square feet larger.

The town has tried to restrict home size, and this 15,000-square-foot residence that’s being planned is in a neighborhood where homes larger than 5,900 square feet are subject to a “large house review”.

But “large house” seems like a huge understatement for this proposed residence.

It looks like Newton just got a bit more desirable. The city snagged the No. 3 spot in Money magazine’s annual search for the top 100 best places to live in America. The magazine noted the city’s close proximity to Boston, top-rated schools, low crime, strong economy, pedestrian-friendly shopping districts, parks and playgrounds.

But one of the minuses was its pricey homes. A modest three-bedroom home can easily cost you $600,000 to $650,000.

In fact, the median price for single-family homes sold in Newton in the first five months of the year was $710,700, substantially higher than the statewide median of about $285,000, according to the most recent statistics from The Warren Group.

Median home prices have ballooned 32 percent in the last decade or so from $539,000 in 2000 to $710,000.

It’s a great place to live if you can afford it.

Those of you who’ve been following housing trends know that foreclosures have been spreading to some of the wealthier suburban parts of the state.

Well it looks like a multimillion-dollar home in one of Brookline’s most desirable neighborhoods was recently foreclosed on.

A 6,000-square-foot mansion at 375 Lee St., which is near Brookline’s Country Club, was foreclosed on by RBS Citizens earlier this month. The bank took back the home for $2.7 million, according to records from The Warren Group.

The home was built by David Geffen, who’s well known for developing upscale properties in Brookline and Newton. His firm built Red Sox owner Larry Lucchino’s home in Brookline about seven years ago. Geffen had been trying to sell the home for several years. I wrote about the Brookline’s luxury housing market back in 2004 when that particular home was on sale for just under $5 million. Last May, it was back on the market for $4.6 million even though foreclosure proceedings had been started on the property in November 2008.

Despite gains that the local housing market has seen recently, it looks like Geffen couldn’t sell his the home fast enough. It will be interesting to see how much the bank gets for the home …