Dick's Picks: Reporters Hit Home with Standout Business Stories

By Dick Weiss
July 6, 2006

When it comes to reader friendly stories, there's no place like home. Each of my picks touches on home buying in very different ways with selections from The Virginian-Pilot, The Star-Ledger and The Sun in Baltimore. The Sun provides a comprehensive and insightful look at what a building boom is doing to Maryland's Eastern Shore. The Star-Ledger shines a light on housing market futures and how you can play the game - at considerable risk. And down the Atlantic Coast, the Pilot provides a "there but for the grace of God" look at a dream home that turned into a nightmare for a Norfolk couple.

Click here to send me an e-mail with some great business stories you've written or seen. That's how The Star-Ledger got picked this time around. Business writer Mary Yanni nominated her own piece of which she is justifiably proud.

Note: each headline contains a link so that you can read the stories online. Some sites will require you to register first. It's worth taking the time.

3 Housing Market Futures and Options

Mary Yanni of The Star-Ledger

The Star-Ledger has been running a series called Business 101 that explains complicated concepts to its readers. I had little interest in market futures which I never got and didn't much care to get. But Yanni's piece with graphics, charts and her use of everyday language drew me in for a look. Just to simplify matters further the presentation includes a cartoon of Chicken Little (in case you want to invest in having the sky fall on the housing market). Like someone who's just learned how to play, say, Black Jack, you'll be tempted to dive in and place a bet. But Yanni includes lots of caveats... Chicken Little, her fictional investor, loses a bundle. The Star-Ledger reproduced the story online in a handy PDF format. Check it out.

2 Primed for Growth

Rona Kobell and Chris Guy of The Sun

Remember in high school how your essay tests began with a question that asked you to "compare and contrast"? Kobell and Guy must have been top students because they do a superb job of showing readers what development is doing to Maryland's Eastern Shore. "Bells still peel in the clock tower" in Centerville, they report. "Stately Victorians line the streets... and "parking meters take nickels..." But now the town sees bumper to bumper traffic and teens are attending a high school running out of room for them. Guy and Kobell say some see disaster in the situation, others salvation. Note as you read this piece how the two play their dichotomy card by focusing on the details... not generalities.

1 Dream Home Became Anything But

Robert McCabe of The Virginian-Pilot

This story gets picked not just because it's a great read, but because it almost wasn't. McCabe credits senior editor Bill Henry with helping him turn a pretty good story that starts with a lawsuit into a far more compelling piece. McCabe was both modest and kind enough to share his original lede. Read it, then click on the headline above to see how much better it got when McCabe connected with one of our greatest fears.

The owners of a year-old home in Ocean View, purchased for $575,000 in March 2005, have alleged in a circuit court filing that Norfolk's building code official has failed them, citing 33 code violations found in their home less than three months after the issuance of a certificate of occupancy.

Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism