Tammy Grubb
Tammy Grubb follows how development decisions and public policy reshape daily life in the communities she covers. She reports for The News & Observer on politics, government and real estate, with a focus on housing, land use and long-running local projects. She has covered Orange County’s politics, people and government since 2010, giving her work continuity on issues that return to the agenda year after year.
Development battles around Chatham Park
Grubb’s real estate coverage frequently centers on Chatham Park and other large-scale developments, tracking how each phase unfolds and what it means for residents and the landscape. In stories on Chatham County’s approval of a housing plan that promises to keep over 100 acres near the Haw River natural, she reports the balance between new homes and protected land written into the deal. She follows the project as it recruits a golf course designer for the South Village and moves through lawsuits over village approvals, pairing coverage of new amenities with legal challenges to the development.
Across these stories, she pays close attention to planning decisions, environmental commitments and the fine print that will shape how these communities are built.
Downtown Chapel Hill projects and Franklin Street change
Grubb’s work on Chapel Hill’s downtown focuses on the stakes of major projects for residents, businesses and local government. In coverage of a proposed parking deck and office deal, she breaks down what decision-makers are weighing and what could change on the ground if the project moves ahead.
When a controversial wet lab proposal did not move forward on Franklin Street, she chronicled what might replace it and how competing visions for the corridor reflect broader debates over growth and community character. She also reports on economic development partnerships between a major university and town leaders, tying real estate deals to longer-term job creation and investment strategies. Her stories in this area often explain complex agreements in clear terms, laying out who benefits, who bears the cost and how downtown spaces may be reshaped.
Housing, displacement and vulnerable families
Housing instability and the aftermath of disasters are a recurring thread in Grubb’s reporting.
She has covered flood-prone housing that remains vacant while families stay in hotels a year after a storm, documenting not just the damaged buildings but the prolonged disruption to people’s lives. She works on pieces that invite single mothers and children facing poverty to share their stories, using that input to frame broader reporting on how North Carolina supports families in crisis.
She steps into complex investigations about grief and systemic failures, distilling months of work into narratives that examine how families cope and what solutions might exist. Together, these stories show her interest in the human consequences of policy and infrastructure decisions, especially where housing, poverty and disaster recovery intersect.
Local politics, justice and community history
Grubb also covers local elections, criminal justice and efforts to preserve Black history.
She follows Orange County commissioner and other primary races, outlining candidates’ concerns and linking them to issues such as development, housing and economic opportunity. Her crime and courts reporting includes coverage of high-profile cases, from a Hillsborough double-murder suspect’s first appearance in court to the aftermath of a conviction in Efland, where she highlights how families remember their loved ones. She contributes to ongoing coverage of projects that preserve historic churches and mark former Black schools, placing new markers and restoration work within a broader movement to share the history of Black communities in North Carolina.
In pieces that touch national figures, she has reported on opportunities for residents to meet leaders such as Kamala Harris in the wake of Helene and the decision not to take part. This mix of political, legal and historical reporting keeps her coverage grounded in how public decisions and past injustices continue to shape local communities.
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.