1) If there is one real estate lesson to be taken from the monumental upset of the undefeated and unstoppable Patriots, it's that, hey, maybe the Manhattan market isn't so untouchable after all! Can a football game affect market confidence? Maybe. The bad news has already started to trickle out, so anything can trigger the snowball effect. ['Home Prices Start to Dip, Recalling ’90s Slump'/Patrick McGeehan]

2) New York's arcane tax laws result in some fairly wacky assessments, partly because storied co-ops are categorized the same as run-down old buildings. This is good news for Rupert Murdoch ($55,000 in annual taxes on his $44 million apartment) and bad news for David Martinez ($442,000 for his Time Warner Center duplex). ['Who Pays the Most Taxes'/Josh Barbanel]

3) A thorough breakdown of the South Williamsburg neighborhood introduces us to Julia Warr and Martin Brierley, a couple of British artists who relocated to the area with their three children and are about one my-boy-got-beat-up-by-some-Spanish-kids away from hopping a plane back to South Kensington. [Living In/Jake Mooney]

4) How does Sky View Parc, a massive 14-acre development in Flushing with luxury condos and a mall, differ from other massive Queens developments like Queens West or LeFrak City? This one is being paid for by all private money. And it has a Home Depot! [Posting/C.J. Hughes]

5) Think Park Slope is going through a baby boom? Then you really to check out Crown Heights, where Lubavitchers are mating like mad and building condos like they're going out of style. [The City/Alex Mindlin]

Chaptzem, the totally awesome Crown Heights-monitoring Chabad blog that we've been reading as a guilty pleasure for months but have yet to tell anyone about, has made our lives with the spotting of this tricked-out Caddy that memorializes The Rebbe, known to most as Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Suddenly, every austere Mitzvah Tank we've seen cruising the streets of Midtown seems less committed to the cause.

The Sun takes a look at North Crown Heights today and declares that it's gentrifying quickly, especially as it is "pulling in homebuyers priced out of Park Slope, the Upper West Side, and other established neighborhoods." Prices for "numerous freestanding mansions and finely detailed brick rowhouses" are going from $650,000 to $1 million and, of course, the neighborhood got a landmark district earlier this year. So what's the trouble? Well, "the retail scene is lagging" so they're sending out a serious SOS to Starbucks, Chase Bank and upscale local retail friends. One buyer says:

"There aren't a lot of restaurants in the neighborhood...If there was something to patronize, I'd willingly spend money there. I'd like to see more amenities. People have money here. Somebody has to be the pioneer and open up something. It's just a matter of time."

[Photo courtesy of nrvlowdown/flickr]