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 
First American’s September index shows national prices flat for the month and up 1.2% from a year earlier, with Texas metros falling while Chicago and New York gain about 5%.
The construction-autonomy startup’s Series C, co-led by CapitalG and Emergence Capital, brings total funding to nearly $1 billion as contractor Haydon and seven other firms sign on.
AGNT, HomeServices of America, Keller Williams and Real REMAX Group launched Open Real Estate, a free national listing-data platform meant to work alongside MLSs as private listings spread.
Builder confidence fell to its lowest since 2012, housing starts and pending sales dropped, mortgage rates eased slightly to 7.32%, and Washington moved on mortgage insurance and investor home-buying rules.
United Wholesale Mortgage’s parent expects more than $1.8 billion from a fourth-quarter MSR sale, alongside a $400 million rights offering it says outside investors are unlikely to fill, as preliminary results show a return to profit on lower loan volume.
Blackstone’s BREP-led opportunistic funds marked down 3.2% in the third quarter while Core+ funds including BREIT gained 1.6%, and real estate AUM shrank 4% to $309 billion.
ARMLS, bridgeMLS, Canopy, Doorify, Hive and REcolorado asked a Manhattan federal court to declare their cooperation rules lawful and bar Compass from suing over them.
NFIP policies can now be bought entirely on Floodsmart.gov in nearly 22,700 participating communities, 18 months after FEMA launched a quote-only tool that sent buyers to carriers.
Two homes on tidal marsh, a lagoon-front home, a wooded lot with a dock and a furnished brick townhome in the historic district made up the week’s top sales.
Three homes built for boaters and two newer homes on the water in planned communities make up a week of sales that all landed in Charlotte County.
The week’s five priciest sales ran from the Intracoastal in Jupiter Inlet Colony and Tequesta to gated neighborhoods in Palm City and Jupiter.
A country property in Gulf Breeze, a beach home in a gated Navarre Beach community and three family homes in Pensacola and Gulf Breeze made up the week’s top sales.
A riverfront penthouse in Cocoa led a week in which three of the top five sales were in Melbourne.
A newly built equestrian property led a week of single-story homes across Ocala, Belleview and Dunnellon, and two of the other four sold for the same price.
Gated golf communities in Grande Dunes, a beach retreat in Surfside Beach and a newly built home in Waterbridge made up the area’s top sales.
A gated South Lakeland enclave, a 55-and-over golf community and a small Fort Meade farm all turned up among the week’s priciest sales.
A Craftsman-style estate in a gated community, a 1940s cottage in Old Westmoreland and a golf course home in Gettysvue were among the week’s priciest sales.
Pools, pool houses and room for serious hobbies ran through the week’s five priciest sales, which stretched from established Huntsville neighborhoods to Brownsboro and Athens.
A one-acre custom estate, a 1950s home on the ocean and three Palm Coast homes on the water or near the golf course made up the top of the market.
Three raised beach homes in Gulf Shores and two high-rise condominiums on Perdido Beach Boulevard in Orange Beach made up the week’s top sales, all of them on or near the water.
A waterfront home in Camden leads a week of family homes spread across three counties and four towns.
A new home in a gated Signal Mountain community led a week of sales that took in lake and river frontage, two Lookout Mountain addresses and a farm across the Georgia line.
The week’s top sales run from $1,650,000 to $3,330,000 across five neighborhoods, every one of them in Jefferson County.
Nine decades of building are on this week’s list, from a Winter Colony-era home to two that no owner had yet lived in.
The Canadian pension investor and Nuveen Real Estate have closed on 19 open-air shopping centers totaling 3 million square feet, anchored by grocers like Giant and Sprouts, and plan to keep buying.
Dream Finders completed its all-cash purchase of Beazer Homes at $33.50 a share, adding California, Nevada, Indiana and Delaware and promising $100 million-plus in synergies as housing demand weakens.
NAR’s pending home sales index fell 7.3% in September to 66.0, the lowest since 2001, while Census data showed single-family starts and permits dropping as 30-year rates sat at 7.40%.
Homes in Palmetto Dunes, Sea Pines and Colleton River joined a deepwater property in Beaufort among the week’s top sales.
A newly finished residence in a high-rise tower, a historic cottage-style home in Boca Grande and three homes on the river and the lake made up the week’s top sales.
Island and beachfront homes in New Hanover and Brunswick counties filled the week’s list, from a home built in 1936 to one finished this year.
Get expert insights, market updates, and new opportunities delivered to your inbox.