Home builders see few reasons for optimism, Penn South co-op votes to extend affordability … and more

1. Department of Finance computer system accidentally compares Queens co-ops with commercial rentals in property tax assessments [NYDN]
2. U.S. home builders see few reasons for optimism, even as economy improves [NYT]
3. City’s gayest neighborhood, the Columbia Street Waterfront District, doesn’t have a single gay bar [Crain’s]

4. Penn South low-income co-op votes in favor of city financing deal, extending affordability in exchange for repairs [NYT]

5. Facing foreclosure, Queens woman says mortgage broker duped her into “liar loan” [NYDN]
6. Advocates, city officials push bank regulators to intervene in foreclosed apartment buildings in need of repairs [WSJ]
7. Park Slope gallery owner builds bunker out of burlap sandbags on President Street [Brooklyn Paper]
8. Asking-taking rent spread narrows to less than 10 percent in Midtown Class A buildings: Jones Lang LaSalle [Crain’s]
9. Oversized terraces and balconies a rarity in NYC [NYT]
10. Inside the 15 CPW home of cartoonist Ranan Lurie [WSJ]
11. Warhol, Basquiat collectors put $15M Trump World Tower unit on the market [Curbed]

12. Glassy condos are out, new prewar-style residences are in [WSJ]
13. Neighbors on board with Sing Sing prison-to-condo conversion proposal [NYT]
14. 15 Union Square West developer originally wanted to demolish the existing structure [WSJ]
15. City’s offer of rent-free space for charter schools sometimes comes up short [NYT]

16. Manhattan Valley on the right side of 96th Street? [WSJ]

17. Office vacancies up again in Fairfield County [WSJ]