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 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act could expand Florida’s manufactured-housing production, free up CDBG funding for new construction, and create a standing disaster-recovery program, according to a Florida Realtors analysis.
The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index rose one point to 35 in August, but builder sentiment has now held below the neutral 40 mark for 16 straight months as price cuts and elevated rates persist.
A Brooklyn appellate justice lifted a restraining order and let New York City resume its pied-a-terre tax rollout, days after a lower court halted it — but the underlying lawsuit over the rollout’s execution continues.
The U.S. Lumber Coalition praised the Trump administration’s Section 232 tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber, arguing they protect domestic forestry jobs, as separate data shows softwood lumber prices jumped 7.4% in July.
Florida single-family and condo sales both rose year over year in July for an 11th consecutive month, even as mortgage rates stayed elevated and statewide inventory kept shrinking, Florida Realtors reports.
NAHB’s Q2 2026 AD&C Financing Survey shows builder borrowing costs rose on land acquisition, land development and speculative construction loans, with effective rates up more than 0.6 points since the end of 2025 even as builders and Fed-surveyed lenders now disagree on credit’s direction.
Bank of America pledged $250 billion over 18 months for U.S. infrastructure financing, including data centers, energy generation and transportation, addressing power bottlenecks that have slowed data center construction.
American Healthcare REIT will pay $873 million for eight Kensington Senior Living communities in California, Maryland, New York and Virginia, per an Aug. 10 SEC filing, in a deal split across three separate closings.
Bipartisan companion bills in the House and Senate would let first-time homebuyers move up to $35,000 in unused 529 college savings, tax-free, toward a down payment.
Five reported home sales in the Birmingham, Alabama metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026 totaled $10.52 million, led by a 1938 Crestline estate that sold for $3.69 million.
A hilltop estate on West Fernhill Circle sold for $1.95 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Tucson, Arizona metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 1922 farmhouse facing Woodward Park in Tulsa led the metro area’s five highest-priced reported home sales for the week ending August 9, 2026, closing at $1.18 million.
A gated Kingsbridge estate in Simpsonville sold for $2.48 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Greenville, South Carolina metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
Longboat Key produced the three highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the North Port, Florida metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026, led by a $9.97 million Gulf-front estate on Gulf of Mexico Drive.
A 2017 house in the Ashford Woods neighborhood of High Point led the five highest-priced home sales reported in the Greensboro, North Carolina metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026, closing at $956,000.
A house overlooking the Graylyn Estate grounds sold for $2.35 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Winston, North Carolina metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A newly finished house in the Canebrake Golf Community in Athens sold for $1.10 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Huntsville, Alabama metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A custom home completed in 2024 in the Shadow Creek neighborhood of Huntertown sold for $949,900, the highest reported price among five home sales in the Fort Wayne, Indiana metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
Bella Vista, a gated 1937 oceanfront estate on North Ocean Boulevard, sold for $4.57 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A lakefront house on Loon Lake in Linden sold for $560,000 to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Flint, Michigan metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A custom brick house on approximately 11 acres at 3611 Coleman Rd sold for $755,000 to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Fayetteville, North Carolina metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A renovated Lowcountry compound on Spring Island sold for $4.55 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales reported in the Hilton Head Island metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 1984 oceanside house in Bethany Beach, expanded by the architectural firm Barnes Vanze, sold for $3,900,000 to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Salisbury, Maryland metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
Villa de Verano, a gated estate on more than 12 acres in Hillsborough, sold for $70 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the San Francisco, California metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A gated 1983 estate in Richmond’s Hillcrest neighborhood sold for $3.50 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Richmond, Virginia metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house on Chattanooga’s Missionary Ridge sold for $4 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Chattanooga, Tennessee metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
An oceanfront estate on Ponte Vedra Boulevard sold for $9.35 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Jacksonville, Florida metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
Five reported home sales in the Cincinnati, Ohio metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026 totaled $9.70 million, led by a five-acre Keller Road home that sold for $2.12 million.
A 2021 house in Middleton’s Community of Bishops Bay sold for $1.60 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the Madison, Wisconsin metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
A 10-acre equestrian property in the Olivenhain area of Encinitas sold for $10.23 million to lead the five highest-priced home sales publicly reported in the San Diego, California metro area for the week ending August 9, 2026.
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