Don Baker is a full-time staff reporter for RealtyWire, where he covers residential real estate, commercial real estate, multifamily housing, market trends, finance, construction, rental data, and regulatory issues affecting the real estate industry.
Before joining RealtyWire, Don worked as an investor relations director for a multifamily private equity fund, where he wrote investor updates and reporting materials on the performance, operations, and outlook of investment properties. That role gave him hands-on experience analyzing real estate trends, rental statistics, construction activity, financing issues, multifamily operations, compliance matters, and the legal and regulatory factors that shape property ownership and investment.
Don brings a broad understanding of both residential and commercial real estate to his reporting, with a particular focus on helping readers understand how market data, policy changes, capital markets, and local property trends affect buyers, sellers, investors, brokers, developers, and property owners.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business from Southern Illinois University and currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Don Baker 
The nation’s largest wholesale mortgage lender said on Oct. 6 that it will obtain both a FICO score and a VantageScore 4.0 on every credit pull and qualify the borrower on whichever is stronger, taking the choice out of brokers’ hands.
Two 1920s homes in Chatham Crescent and Ardsley Park lead a group that also includes two waterfront homes and a townhouse in the South Historic District.
Homes built around boating shared the week’s top sales with a rural spread that traded the waterfront for open land.
The week’s top sales spanned nearly half a century of building, from a ranch built in 1976 to a home completed in 2022.
Every home on the list came with land, from just over three acres to more than 21, and in three of the five sales the same agent was on both sides.
Three homes on lakefront lots, an oceanfront condominium and a home in a gated Murrells Inlet community made up the week’s top sales.
A sprawling ranch, a Creole-style home on the water and three older homes in Mobile’s established neighborhoods made up the week’s top sales.
A home on Lake Arietta and a just-finished farmhouse on a golf course shared the top spot, followed by a 10-bedroom resort home in Davenport and two properties with large detached workshops.
Two of the week’s top sales were neighbors on the same Madison road, and two brokerages each listed a pair of the five homes.
A renovated home from 1940 in an established Columbia neighborhood led a week that also took in waterfront living in Leesville and newer family homes in Lexington and Blythewood.
A horse property with its own arena, a pool-and-guest-cottage estate, a lakefront home on a cove and more than 41 wooded acres outside Hephzibah filled out the week’s list in Georgia and South Carolina.
Valon Technologies raised $150 million in Series D funding at a $2.3 billion valuation, doubling its prior valuation, with Ribbit Capital joining and Andreessen Horowitz returning. The company says one in six outstanding U.S. mortgages is under contract to run on its ValonOS servicing platform.
Two homes in a Lake Keowee golf community, a country estate in Six Mile and two Greenville homes made up the week’s five biggest sales.
Oceanfront golf communities in Palm Coast and a home on the Halifax River in Port Orange made up the week’s top sales, from a three-story custom estate to a brand-new lakefront home.
Two homes on Chickamauga Lake, two on Lookout Mountain and a new home on Signal Mountain made up a week led by a $2.1 million sale in Soddy Daisy.
Homes in Wrightsville Beach and Oak Island take four of the five spots, and a home in Wilmington’s Landfall community completes the list.
A Gulf-front home in Perdido Key led a week of sales that stretched from Navarre Beach to a bayou in Pensacola.
An oceanfront home built by its builder for personal use, a one-level Spanish-style home on a lake and a renovated 1973 riverfront home were among the sales that led the week’s sales along the Space Coast.
Two Louisville homes near the water led the week, and the five ranged from a gated country property to a home that has yet to be built.
A new condominium on Amelia Island and an acre on Ponte Vedra Boulevard joined older homes in Ortega and on Duval Drive among the week’s biggest closings.
The coast took all five spots, from a custom home on Bayou St. John to Gulf-front residences on Perdido Beach Boulevard and a raised beach duplex in Gulf Shores.
Two Inlet Beach homes on the Gulf led the week, and a pair of Miramar Beach homes in the same neighborhood rounded out the list.
Four of the five homes were newly built, and two of them are condominium residences in the same beachfront development.
Waterfront homes in Port Royal, Park Shore and the Moorings shared the list with a newly built estate in Pine Ridge.
The GEO Group completed the $950 million sale of three immigration detention facilities in Adelanto, Calif., totaling 2,644 beds, to the federal government through the Department of Homeland Security, and will keep operating them under an ICE contract that runs through 2034.
An oceanfront home led a week of sales split between Hilton Head Island and Okatie, with golf views running through much of the list.
A Victorian from 1903, a riverfront condominium in the French Quarter, a beach home and two Daniel Island properties made up the week’s top sales.
Water ran through every one of the week’s top sales, from Gulf beaches to a freshwater lake and a river.
A villa built by Italian artisans in the 1920s, a Bobby McAlpine cottage in Redmont and a golf-course home in Shoal Creek were among the week’s most expensive homes to change hands.
New construction on the water and in South Tampa shares the list with a Brooksville farm estate on nearly 30 acres and a boater’s home in Belleair Beach.
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