More buyers take 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, home builders’ confidence inches up … and more

1. More buyers taking 15-year fixed-rate mortgages [NYT]
2. Debt backed by commercial real estate hits $3.5 trillion [24/7 Wall St]

3. U.S. Federal Reserve will keep benchmark interest rates near zero, Federal Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said [Reuters]
4. Could Bushwick or Jackson Heights be the next popular neighborhood? [TONY]
5. Cell phone services allow buyers to access housing data instantly [Baltimore Sun]
6. Host of television show “Real Estate Intervention” tells homeowners their properties are overpriced [NYT]
7. Living in Bloomfield, N.J. [NYT]
8. Brooke Astor’s old Park Avenue apartment still on the market [NYDN]
9. City doesn’t have enough money to fund park projects [Post]
10. Retail scene is bleak on Broadway between West 53rd Street and Columbus Circle [Post, 2nd item]
11. New rules for greener heating and cooling systems [NYT]
12. Car-free Times Square begins [NYDN]
13. Home builders’ confidence inches up [Crain’s]
14. Two law firms moving to 14 Wall Street [Post, 3rd item]
15. Open Link and Titan Industries resign leases at 1370 Sixth Avenue for $60 a foot [Post, 4th item]
16. 39,000-square-foot mansion planned for Greenwich, Conn. [NY Mag]
17. Valiant Insurance Group almost doubles space at 110 William Street [Crain’s]
18. Two tenants resign leases at 1333 Broadway [Crain’s]
19. New York City needs more modern offices, Cuozzo says [Post]