Morgan Stanley CEO buys $13.5M carriage house, FHA has all-time busiest year … and more

1. Morgan Stanley CEO buys $13.5M carriage house [NYO]
2. Mott Haven swamp clean-up crew tries to identify source [NY1]
3. Park Slope library to close down for renovations [FIPS]
4. Historic House Trust to celebrate 20th anniversary with five-borough
festival [Brooklyn Eagle]

5. Greenwood Heights to soon have a Best Western motel [Brownstoner]
6. New School to begin asbestos abatement process [The Villager]
7. 111 Lawrence Avenue condominium now Brooklyn’s tallest, at 51 stories [Architectural Lamentations]
8. UWS Apple store construction underway [Curbed]
9. 13,000-square-foot medical building sold in Bay Ridge [Brooklyn Eagle]

10. Vanderbilt Avenue between Gates and Greene streets in Clinton Hill unwitting recipient of dump heap [Brownstoner]
11. Queens’ Richmond Hill neighborhood voted best place to buy an old home [NY1]
12. Connecticut man defrauds lenders, gets four years in prison [Mortgage Fraud Blog]
13. Reuters poll shows most believe housing prices will rise in 2010 [CNBC]
14. FHA having all-time busiest year [USA Today via Realtor Magazine]
15. Mortgage bankers urge government to replace Fannie and Freddie [Realtor magazine]