Joni Hess
Joni Hess covers how New Orleans neighborhoods change on the ground, with a focus on real estate stories that center residents, small property owners and the public agencies that shape redevelopment. Her reporting often follows what happens after big plans and incentives are announced, tracking whether investment, public policy and basic services reach long-neglected corridors and communities.
Redevelopment and disinvestment in New Orleans East
Hess spends significant time on New Orleans East, documenting the gap between its commercial potential and the reality of vacant sites, slow-moving projects and strained infrastructure. In her coverage of property owners calling for help with redevelopment in the area, she digs into why plans stall, what kinds of incentives or zoning changes are on the table, and how long-time owners weigh selling, holding or reinvesting. She highlights the interplay between city hall, council members and economic development agencies, but keeps the story anchored in what it means for landowners trying to recover value after years of disinvestment. Her work in this corridor often surfaces specific parcels, proposed uses and timelines, giving a granular picture of what “revitalization” looks like beyond press conferences.
Policy, incentives and the machinery of redevelopment
Across her real estate beat, Hess returns to the mechanics of how projects get financed and approved. She covers public authorities, incentive programs and redevelopment tools as live factors in whether a corridor turns around or remains stuck. When city officials push new plans for blighted commercial centers or large tracts of underused land, she tracks how those commitments evolve, what conditions are attached and how they intersect with broader city priorities like hurricane preparedness or infrastructure upgrades. Her stories tend to explain who controls key decisions, where bottlenecks occur and what options property owners have within the current policy framework, rather than treating redevelopment as an abstract trend.
Community impact and the lived experience of growth
Hess treats real estate as a community story as much as a business one. In covering rising housing costs and redevelopment pressures, she draws out how shifts in property values, insurance, taxes and rents affect families’ ability to stay in place and maintain stability. Her work often connects the cost of living to the health of neighborhood institutions, from small businesses along commercial corridors to the social fabric that makes specific areas feel like home. Even when she writes about large-scale plans or major sites, she threads in resident concerns about displacement, safety and quality of life, showing how policy decisions play out block by block.
Service journalism on preparedness and local systems
Alongside development pieces, Hess contributes service-oriented coverage that helps residents navigate local systems, particularly around seasonal risks and city planning. In advance of hurricane season, she distills what residents need to know from official briefings, response plans and infrastructure updates, clarifying how emergency preparations intersect with ongoing issues like drainage, building standards and neighborhood vulnerability. These pieces keep her close to city agencies and utility providers while reinforcing a consistent theme in her work: the connection between long-term investment, everyday resilience and the safety of homes and properties.
4 more real estate journalists.
Aaron Moselle
Aaron Moselle covers housing and community development for WHYY’s PlanPhilly, filing for radio and the web. He stands out for connecting market data and government action to displacement, affordable homes, and the daily questions facing renters and homeowners. His core beat is housing affordability and market strain, including high mortgage rates, rising prices, tax assessments, and what they mean for buyers, sellers, and renters. He also reports on preserving and creating affordable housing, neighborhood rehab efforts, major real estate deals, and the effect of property sales on residents. His work often uses direct sourcing, plain language, and service journalism to make policy and finance clear.
Abbey Ferguson
Abbey Ferguson stands out for reporting how major commercial moves and redevelopment plans reshape the built environment, especially the real estate deals that reveal what land and retail space are worth. She covers Central Texas commercial real estate and development for KWTX, with recent stories on land valuation, major transactions, retail redevelopment, and infrastructure planning. Her work has tracked an $80 million data center site offer in Hill County, a prospective Trader Joe’s location in Waco, and a planning project using artificial intelligence to predict traffic patterns. She writes as a news reporter, staying close to the numbers, public records, brokers, officials, and landowners. Her stories turn contract prices, appraisal data, and listing history into plain explanations of what buyers are betting on and how those deals affect surrounding property owners and nearby businesses.
Alcynna Lloyd
Alcynna Lloyd reports on how housing markets shape people’s lives, focusing on the real decisions and trade-offs behind buying, renting, and moving home. She is a real estate reporter at Business Insider, where she writes about homebuying behavior, tiny homes, and multi-generational housing as part of the economy team’s coverage of real estate and the rental market. Her core beat is the consumer side of housing, with an emphasis on affordability and how market conditions affect ordinary buyers and renters. She writes analytical service pieces that compare different markets and track moves, migrations, and life changes tied to housing. Her stories combine economic context, market data, and detailed personal narratives, and she also covers startups and rising real estate talent to show how industry decisions affect everyday housing choices.
Aldo Svaldi
Aldo Svaldi treats residential real estate as a window into the Colorado economy, explaining how housing trends reflect jobs, income, business activity and public policy. He is a long-tenured business reporter who covers the Colorado economy, economic development and residential real estate. His beat centers on mortgage costs, construction pipelines, buyer behavior and banking, with a focus on housing pressures and affordability. He reports on segments such as entry-level, move-up and higher-end homes, showing how financing costs, supply constraints and demand shifts affect each. His work is data-forward, using economic indicators, reports and forecasts to track cycles, turning points and structural issues. He scrutinizes research findings and pairs expert analysis with interviews and on-the-ground observations to show how policy, corporate moves and financial decisions shape housing demand, prices and development patterns.