(Op-Ed) With the nation embroiled in a housing crisis, one would expect the Department of Housing and Urban Development to be playing a central role. But HUD is a marginal player. Although its Federal Housing Administration division has agreed to underwrite new mortgages, it is merely following the leadership of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.

An unexpected spate of good news about the economy lifted stocks, as Wall Street hoped a rise in consumer confidence and better-than-expected business spending would buoy investors’ spirits

If you are ignoring the housing bailout bill because you think it benefits only troubled homeowners, you may miss out on a windfall.

George Herbert Walker IV, President Bush's second cousin, paid $13.95 million for a townhouse at 6 East 10th Street in Greenwich Village.

President Bush had dropped his opposition to a housing bill moving through Congress, clearing the way for a broad package of legislation that would shore up the nation’s troubled mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and help struggling homeowners refinance loans. President Bush set aside his objections to a $3.9 billion provision in the broad legislation on the advice of the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr.

Results that would have once been viewed as disastrous are now seen as good, even great, by some. The sober phrase often used on Wall Street to describe solid corporate results — “better than expected” — has been replaced by “not as bad as feared.”

(Editorial) The White House has threatened to veto a foreclosure prevention bill if it contains a $4 billion block grant program for states to buy up foreclosed properties. Mr. Bush has not objected when the big firms and rich executives of Wall Street have been on the receiving end of federal assistance, but now he is threatening to block a measure to aid hard-hit neighborhoods filled with ordinary Americans.

A new development battle is under way that centers on whether the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission is willing to expand the boundaries of the Upper East Side historic district to include almost 200 more buildings, a number of which could be demolished any day now to make way for new construction.

Mortgage rates are rising because of the troubles at the loan finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, threatening to deal another blow to the faltering housing market.

After falling almost continuously over the past month, Freddie Mac tumbled another 18 percent and Fannie Mae lost 16 percent amid concerns that the companies would need to raise billions of dollars in fresh capital.

With no end in sight to the turbulence in the housing and financial markets, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke said the Fed would issue new lending rules next week to restrict exotic mortgages and high-cost loans for people with weak credit; , and may extend its temporary financial lifeline to major Wall Street firms.

State lawmakers have approved a bill to give tax breaks to homeowners who install 'green roofs' - gardens atop buildings. The credit of $4.50 per square foot, is about a quarter of the cost of a typical green roof.

Developers are eying two blocks in Chinatown now that the city council has approved the re-zoning of the area between Walker and White streets, Broadway and Lafayette Street.

[pdf] Web data aggregation site StreetEasy got into the "me too" residential property sales report game this quarter, by releasing one of its own. The report largely mirrored the trends just released by the large real estate brokerages. StreetEasy forum users both welcomed the report, and sometimes questioned the accuracy of the StreetEasy data.

Real estate professionals say buyers are in the driver's seat. Residential sales in Manhattan slid in the second quarter, according to market reports, falling back from last year's lofty peaks.

It's hard to believe New York City is in a slump when Manhattan real estate prices continue to climb, reaching record-breaking numbers. But the drop in the volume of sales makes the whole picture look grimmer.

We got our hands on Corcoran's Q2 sales data, and it shows that the state of the Brooklyn market isn't quite as precarious as the Times made it out to be.

Will the credit crunch and the mortgage crisis finally infiltrate Manhattan real estate? Will Wall Street layoffs slow the now years-strong market surge? No, yes and maybe.

Manhattan apartment sales fell in January and February from a year earlier and new properties came to the market at the fastest pace since at least 2000, according to data from New York-based real estate appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. Transactions slid 6.4 percent to 3,250, while the number of condominiums, co- operatives and townhouses for sale at the end of last month climbed to 6,225, 15 percent more than at the start of the year.

The second-quarter Manhattan housing market reports will are out Last time they hit, for the first quarter, the reports caused quite the kerfuffle, including internal company e-mails and a New York Times article trying to sort the whole thing out.

Data from this year's second quarter indicate two divergent trends; on a year-over-year basis, the volume of sales is down, while at the same time the average home price is rising.

Even with thousands of layoffs at the city's securities firms, prices on apartments and townhouses have hardly budged.

Despite slowing sales and continuing economic worries, market studies just released showed that the Manhattan co-op and condominium market remained strong in the peak spring selling season, with prices up 25 percent or more compared with a year ago, and overall prices roughly flat or just below record levels.

Most of New York City’s largest construction projects ground to a halt or near-halt, because of an unanticipated strike by more than 400 cement-truck drivers.

Here’s a question rarely asked, at least in Washington: Why should ever-increasing homeownership be a policy goal? How many people should own homes, anyway?

The U.S. home-price declines most associated with lower-priced properties may accelerate among more expensive houses, according to analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

U.S. home sales increased in May, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors, which indicated that more buyers are responding to lower home prices. The NAR reported that existing home sales increased 2 percent last month to 4.99 million units, but remained 15.9 percent below the 5.93 million units sold during the same time last year.

A highly anticipated progress report on construction at ground zero is expected to focus on a scaled-back redesign of the PATH transit hub, demolition of the Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St., and difficulties involving work on the no. 1 subway line. The report will not include a detailed construction schedule with time lines for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site.

Sounding a somber note, Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council announced a budget deal that provides new funding for schools, avoids tax hikes, and would increase overall spending only slightly.

A report done for Board 1 by the Manhattan borough president shows that the fastest growing area in Lower Manhattan is the Financial District, and by 2013 it is expected to have more than double the people it had in 2000.

Forest City Ratner executives threatened to halt construction of the new school on Beekman St. unless they receive a 20-year tax break from the city.

The New York City “Waterfalls” are the remnants of a primordial Eden, beautiful, uncanny signs of a natural nonurban past that the city never had.

With sinking home values continuing to drag down the economy, Congress is poised to approve a huge package of housing legislation, including a refinancing program aimed at rescuing hundreds of thousands of homeowners in danger of foreclosure and the most sweeping government overhaul of mortgage financing since the New Deal.

While many developers have been racing to get started on projects before changes in the 421-a tax abatement take effect, another group has thrown in the towel, tripped up by the deadline and the faltering economy. As a result, dozens of development sites with approved plans for condominiums are on the market all over the city.

As sales have slowed and inventory has grown, developers are clamoring to move new development condo units, many by adjusting prices. Price cuts are outpacing price increases, and prices appear to be falling on the whole in the two most active boroughs for development, Manhattan and Brooklyn, particularly in Harlem and much of Brooklyn.

Neighbors of Alf Naman's flashy HL23 condominium building will seek to block its construction unless a crane to be located near the front of their building can be operated safely, according to court documents filed this week.

Community Board 2 has voted in favor of New York University's plan to preserve the Provincetown Playhouse theater but demolish the building's surrounding structures. Originally, NYU planned to demolish the entire site, but agreed to preserve the theater's walls and facade in May after the plan drew protests. NYU restored the theater in 1998 after it was closed for several years.

The grandest of all the streets in Prospect Park South is Albemarle Road, a broad, esplanaded boulevard of stately neo-Classical, Queen Anne and Colonial style mansions. In fact, for the three blocks from Argyle to Buckingham Roads, Albemarle is one of the grandest residential streets in the whole city, even with some dings and dents.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the leading concrete testing company in the New York area, which has been hired to measure and analyze the strength of the concrete poured at some of the biggest construction projects in the city, failed to do some tests and falsified others. Concrete testing at Yankee Stadium and Freedom Tower is being scrutinized.

The board that regulates rents for New York City’s one million rent-stabilized apartments approved its highest rent increases in years, angering tenants who said high rents were forcing the poor and working class out of the city.

Last month, a $7 million-plus sale at Dumbo's One Main Street, beat out a unit at One Brooklyn Bridge Park for the most expensive condo ever sold in Brooklyn.

While many developers have been racing to get started on projects before changes in the 421-a tax abatement take effect, another group has thrown in the towel, tripped up by the June 30th deadline and the faltering economy. As a result, dozens of development sites with approved plans for condominiums are on the market all over the city.

Brooklyn politicians and civic groups proposed legislation today to create a trust that would impose more public control over the construction of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards mega-project in Brooklyn.

Developers and the community are looking at proposed set of zoning changes which would extend the Special Clinton District north and west. It would declare much of the east side of the avenue a residential zone, and re-classify the industrial zone on the west side to allow for office space, while prohibiting new hotels.

The construction of architect Neil Denari's condo building on the High Line, HL23, is chronicled in an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.

How a New York-based architecture team turned the detritus of urban life into a design virtue.

Anyone who has marveled at the swooping, jagged, iridescent and crystalline curtain walls of the contemporary cityscape, might well have wondered about who ensures that every facet is precisely cut? Enter the facade consultancy, a new category of expert in which Front is the leader.

A. O. Scott's tone poem begins the latest incarnation of the NY Times Magazine's Architectural issue. It draws attention to the power of pure imagination and social forces, creating the cities of the future in both in our cinema, and perhaps in reality.

Over the past few years, as the dollar has weakened and both oil prices and the euro have risen, overseas investors have bought large swathes of commercial and residential real estate in the city.

An Italian property group said it is in advanced talks to take a majority stake in Manhattan's landmark Flatiron Building— one of the first skyscrapers in America.