Broad Street buys pair of Gramercy apartment buildings for $85M, asking prices jump for U.S. homes … and more

1. Broad Street Development enters NYC multi-family game, buys adjacent East 22nd Street buildings for $85M [Post, 2nd item]
2. Joy Behar buys $2.875M East Hampton home [LI Real Estate Report via Newsday]
3. U.S. home asking prices rise 5.6 percent in last 12 months [WSJ]
4. Donald Trump explains who is at fault for the struggling U.S. economy [Fox News]
5. Brooklyn’s first Le Pain Quotidien opened this weekend on Montague Street [Brownstoner]
6. “Forrest Gump” actor holds concert to raise money for new Brooklyn home for vet who lost three limbs in battle [NYDN]
7. Despite rising gas prices, retail sales improved in March signaling economy isn’t as weak as some feared [Reuters]
8. Construction worker injured at Second Avenue Subway construction site [NY1]
9. $11M Park Avenue co-op offers buyer a buffer from litigious family [NYO]
10. Brooklyn Housing Court sets earlier deadlines, making tenants more likely to lose their cases [NYDN]
11. Inwood’s Mamajuana Cafe founder brings new restaurant to Riverdale [Post, 3rd item]
12. Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov tours Barclays Center with Bruce Ratner [YES]
13. Old Sokol Bros. furniture store in Brooklyn gives way to luxury apartments [Lost City]
14. Controversial Kars 4 Kids charity seeks property tax exemption, jeopardizing upstate New York town’s largest revenue source [WSJ]
15. NYC’s poverty rate reaches 21 percent, highest level since 2005 [NYT]
16. Vornado shares rise after Chairman Steven Roth promises change [Bloomberg]
17. Taxpayers contribute $20M to slow Coney Island beach erosion [Post]
18. Fire in Van Nest section of Bronx has residents worried about effects of lost homes [NYDN]
19. Famed Queens comic book store opens Midtown outpost [DNAinfo]
20. After 73 years, Tom Austin Shoes on West 43rd Street is closing [NYT]
21. Trulia hires JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank to handle its IPO [Bloomberg]
22. Chemicals on site of former dry cleaner pose health threat to adjacent Bronx daycare center [NYDN]