Mike Romano
Mike Romano examines how broad economic, political and cultural forces shape the real estate industry, writing nationally focused coverage for The Real Deal that connects housing policy, financial misconduct, sports and technology to property markets. He works as a multimedia content writer within the newsroom, producing text and multimedia packages that look beyond individual deals to the systems and stories driving them. His recent work centers on how ambitious housing plans, fraud cases, mega-events and artificial intelligence are remaking the business of real estate.
Housing policy and national initiatives
Romano covers large-scale housing efforts and their political obstacles, including a recent examination of “America’s biggest housing push in decades” and why it remains stuck in political limbo. In that work he focuses on the gap between the scale of proposed interventions and the reality of stalled legislation, treating housing not just as a business beat but as a core piece of domestic policy.
His reporting highlights how gridlocked initiatives affect the broader housing landscape, emphasizing the national scope rather than local project news.
Fraud, risk and the darker side of real estate
Romano devotes significant attention to fraud and legal exposure in property deals, with a feature on why “real estate has a Ponzi problem” that traces a string of recent cases across markets. In that story he shows how alleged Ponzi schemes continue to emerge in different regions, explaining the mechanics that let them grow inside real estate structures and what repeated scandals signal about regulatory and market safeguards.
He extends this focus on risk to other distress narratives, such as a collapsed summer camp empire tied to real estate and a manslaughter trial in South Florida, treating criminal and civil fallout as part of the industry’s operating environment rather than as isolated courtroom drama.
Sports, mega-events and real estate markets
Romano frequently links sports to commercial real estate performance, including coverage of how the World Cup reshapes host-city property markets and which locations are “cashing in” on the tournament. He follows North America’s World Cup host cities as they face the economic reality behind the hype, examining how expectations around investment, development and demand match actual outcomes. His work also looks at how sports championships influence commercial real estate, with reporting on the way title runs can boost activity in local markets and change how investors and landlords view stadium-adjacent or team-related assets.
This sports lens distinguishes his beat from conventional transaction reporting by treating games and tournaments as catalysts for shifts in pricing, leasing and development.
Technology, AI and high-end migration
Romano covers artificial intelligence as an emerging force within real estate, exploring how AI creates new challenges, opportunities and questions about the industry’s future.
In his “AI Impact on Real Estate” package he pairs that technology coverage with legal and competitive issues, including an antitrust probe involving Compass, showing how innovation, litigation and brokerage models intersect. His multimedia role means these stories often appear as multi-part news packages that weave together technology, regulation and market behavior rather than treating each as a separate silo.
He also reports on the movement of tech wealth into key real estate markets, such as a story asking whether Mark Zuckerberg is the next tech titan fleeing California for Florida. That piece follows speculation around a possible $200 million mansion purchase on Indian Creek Island, the brokers who pushed back on the rumored deal, and what the episode says about affluent buyers shopping South Florida’s ultra-luxury enclaves. By tracking both AI’s impact on the industry and billionaires’ buying patterns, Romano positions technology as a driver of change in real estate from the back office to the very top of the market.
Format and approach
Romano’s work often takes the form of thematic features and news roundups that bundle several stories into a single narrative, such as pieces that move from World Cup host-city markets to distressed empires and criminal trials under one overarching frame.
Across these formats he writes in clear, direct language, privileging explanation and context over deal listings or neighborhood color. His coverage is distinguished less by a narrow geographic beat and more by its focus on systemic forces - policy initiatives, fraud schemes, sports cycles, technological shifts and the decisions of ultra-wealthy buyers - that together define the real estate business he covers.
4 more real estate journalists.
Aaron Elstein
Aaron Elstein brings a Wall Street reporter’s eye to commercial real estate. He is a senior reporter at Crain’s New York Business, where he covers large office towers, Midtown corridors, landlords, lenders, investors and regulators. His reporting shows how ownership decisions, bank balance sheets, capital markets and regulation shape property values and risk. He also covers banking, finance and Wall Street, including bank mergers and investment firms. Before joining Crain’s in 2003, he wrote Heard on the Street columns for The Wall Street Journal and covered bank mergers for American Banker. Elstein reports by closely reading footnotes, contracts, regulatory filings and legal documents. His investigative work has examined executive payments, pension funds, tax enforcement and tenant harassment. His coverage places deals, disputes and enforcement actions within broader financial and property cycles.
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.
Aarthi Swaminathan
Aarthi Swaminathan is a personal finance reporter at MarketWatch whose distinctive beat connects residential real estate with household budgets. She covers housing prices, affordability, mortgage rates, financing, insurance, remodeling and the costs of owning a home. Her reporting examines overvalued and fast-rising markets, ZIP-code trends, second-home sellers, builders, developers and buyers facing higher borrowing costs. She also follows Gen Z buyers, owners trapped in weakening condo markets and neighborhood conflicts over development. Her work pairs data-driven housing analysis with detailed case studies of buyers, owners and sellers. She explains complex market data in clear, accessible language and writes news features, personal-finance explainers, Economic Report stories, The Big Move and New American Playbook. She won a silver award for Best Collection of Work by an Individual Covering Residential Real Estate.
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.