Renting vs. buying … and more

1. The credit crunch has complicated the renting versus buying decision [NYT]
2. Harry Macklowe secures $330 million construction loan for office tower at Madison Avenue and 53th Street [WSJ]
3. Sales of existing U.S. homes in the probably dropped to lowest level in at least nine years last month [Bloomberg]
4. Doubts raised over funding for West Side’s mega-projects [NYDN]
5. Connecticut sees a wave of foreclosures [NYT]
6. New Jersey’s transit villages come alive [NYT]
7. New developments on the East Side and the West Side [NYT]
8. Final Trump World Tower apartments were finally sold after being combined into one [NYT]
9. Armando Ristorante in Brooklyn Heights will close after 72 years, as restaurant owner redevelops building [Brooklyn Eagle]
10. To better fight high-rise fires, the Fire Department and federal fire experts are testing strategies on Governors Island [NYT]
11. German bank to sue UBS over subprime investments [NYT]
12. Owner of Cobble Hill Cinema and Kew Gardens Cinema personally selects films [NYDN]
13. New York’s building boom could be jeopardizing its accent [AMNY]
14. Cul-de-sac of 18 row houses off Atlantic Avenue in southern Bedford-Stuyvesant could be landmarked [NYT]