Lexi Cortes
Lexi Cortes investigates how housing, local infrastructure and local power affect everyday life in the Metro East suburbs of St. Louis, treating real estate as a public service and civil rights issue rather than a business beat. She is an investigative reporter at the Belleville News-Democrat and has worked at the paper since 2014, earning multiple state awards for investigative and community service reporting. Her work centers on harmful conditions, government failures and abuses of power that show up in the places where people live.
Unsafe rental housing and deteriorating properties
Cortes devotes sustained reporting to tenants living in buildings that are already in disrepair and then lose basic management and maintenance support. In coverage of metro-east apartments described as “already in ‘disrepair’” that subsequently lost their manager and maintenance staff, she focuses on what that loss means for residents’ safety, stability and ability to get problems fixed. Her questions in this kind of story track the practical consequences for tenants rather than the business implications for owners.
A major project titled “Hazardous Homes” follows residents in Cahokia Heights dealing with serious housing problems, built around on-the-ground interviews and documented conditions in their homes. The series has been recognized nationally for public service reporting, underscoring her emphasis on housing as a shared community problem rather than isolated private disputes. Across these pieces, she uses narrative detail and residents’ own accounts to show how neglected properties and failing infrastructure shape daily life.
Landlords, corporate owners and housing rules
Cortes frequently reports on how landlords and corporate owners manage lower-cost housing, including mobile home communities. In coverage of local mobile home properties purchased by firms such as Homes of America and Alden Global Capital, she tracks ownership changes and what they may mean for residents who depend on those homes. Her real estate stories in this space focus less on investment strategy and more on access, affordability and stability for the people living in the properties.
She also reports on crime-free housing ordinances and the civil rights questions they raise. In a story explaining that “it’s not just Granite City” and that there is statewide attention on crime-free housing rules, she connects local policies to broader debates over fairness and the power landlords have over tenants. Additional reporting on lawsuits against Granite City over these ordinances shows her interest in how housing rules intersect with constitutional rights and discrimination claims. Together, these pieces build a picture of real estate policy as a tool that can either protect or harm marginalized residents.
Local government, data and accountability
Cortes extends her housing and real estate coverage into the workings of local government, using records and data to evaluate how officials do their jobs. A prize-winning investigation asking “Is your St. Clair County Board member coming to work? Here are their attendance records” compiles and analyzes attendance data for each board member, presenting a clear, accessible measure of performance. That approach reflects a broader method: she uses public records to quantify behavior that residents might otherwise only suspect.
Her archive also includes work on enforcement tools such as red light and speed cameras, where she reports on decisions to expand traffic enforcement technology and the public reaction to it. Earlier in her tenure she produced general assignment and lifestyle pieces, including event listings and a video interview with an O’Fallon student offering advice after earning a perfect ACT score. Over time, her focus has shifted firmly toward accountability reporting that ties local decisions and systems back to the conditions people experience in their homes, streets and neighborhoods.
Approach to sourcing and public service reporting
Cortes explicitly invites news tips from people who can describe harm in specific detail and provide documentation such as emails, photos or videos. She says she is most interested in issues that affect multiple people, signaling a focus on systemic problems rather than one-off complaints. Her guidance on tips emphasizes clarity about who has been harmed and what evidence exists, which matches the documentary and data-driven nature of her published work.
In her public description of her role, she stresses shining a light on local abuses of power, government failures and harm to citizens. Her author bio notes that she has won multiple state awards for investigative and community service reporting, and recent coverage of “Hazardous Homes” and diversity-related housing issues has earned additional recognition. Across beats that touch real estate, housing policy and local government, she writes in a straightforward, evidence-based style that foregrounds residents’ experiences and the records that back them up.
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.