The National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE) on June 20 announced the winners of its 59th Annual Journalism Awards in Washington, D.C. NAREE’s awards program recognizes excellence in reporting, writing, and editing stories about both residential and commercial real estate.
This year’s Robert F. Brennan Award for “Best Overall Entry by an Individual” went to Mara Der-Hovanesian, an editor at Business Week magazine. “This reporter managed to uncover and get people to talk about the sleazy underbelly of the mortgage business,” the judges said. “People obviously open up to her, and her article shows it. Her article serves as a model for traditional investigative reporting.”
Der-Hovanesian also won the award for “Best Mortgage or Financial Report in a Magazine.” The judges said, “This article takes the outline of the housing crash and tells it as a story with a focus on the dirty little activities of the mortgage lenders, wholesalers, and packagers. It is very readable and at times borders on a great expose.”
The “Best Investigative Report or Series” went to Der-Hovanesian and Peter Coy of Business Week. “Not only do these articles captivate the reader with a portrait of escalating disaster in the housing market, but, in explaining the process of the meltdown, they extract great material about just how sleazy this industry became,” the judges noted. “They feature in-depth reporting and analysis.”
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