Playing the housing lottery … and more

1. Entering lotteries for middle-class housing in New York City means facing
long odds [NYT]
2. Appellate court rules that Altantic Yards case must be sped up [Post] and [Bloomberg]
3. The news isn’t all bad for the New Jersey housing market [NYT]
4. City Comptroller William Thompson says the city’s pension
funds will stop investing in residential real estate that replaces affordable
apartments with market-rate units [REW]
5. Reverse mortgages draw complaints of high-pressure sales
tactics and high fees [NYT]
6. Upper West Side residents take city to
court to block supportive housing project from coming to at 319 West 94th Street [NYDN]
7. Foreclosures outpace home sales in some states [NYT]
8. Federal regulators ask courts to sanction Countrywide for
abusing the bankruptcy system [DOW JONES/AP via NYT]
9. How con artists duped builders by pretending to be inspectors [NYT]
10. Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoed
a bill that would have protected prospective tenants who use rent subsidies,
but the City Council could override the veto [NYT]
11. Watching a 150-year-old town house get replaced by a luxury
apartment building [NYT]
12. Yonkers finalizes plans for $1.6
billion River Park Center [Journal-News]
13. South Orange becomes a
melting pot [NYT]
14. Rare owls complicate development on Long Island [Newsday]
15. Trial begins for developer linked to Sen. Barack Obama [NYDN]