Journalists honor best real-estate stories

We spent last week hearing about trends in real estate at the annual National Association of Real Estate Editors' conference in Denver. That conference also gave us a chance to recognize some of the best real-estate reporting of last year.

Among the winning entries were some compelling stories we had not heard before, so we thought we'd share a few.

Notable books also were honored. The winner of the Robert Bruss Real Estate Book Award, named for the late real-estate columnist, was Kalvin Platt, author of "Master-Planned Communities: Lessons from the Developments of Chuck Cobb," published by the Urban Land Institute.

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Cobb, who was the CEO of Arvida Corp. and the Disney Development Co. in the 1970s and '80s, was instrumental in the creation of a number of planned communities. Platt's book visited those communities to see how well they serve their residents today.

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Among the other top winners:

• Felix Gillette, Bloomberg Businessweek, won the top individual award for his story about "The King of All Las Vegas Real Estate Scams." The story told how a 65-year-old, legally blind retiree helped to bring down a ring of corrupt lawyers and construction companies scamming condo developments.
• Kenneth Harney, Washington Post Writers Group and Inman News, won for Best Freelance Collection. Harney, who writes a weekly syndicated column about real estate, outlined how the Internal Revenue Service came to award tax credits to, among others who didn't deserve them, prisoners, dead people and babies.　
• Daniel Miller, The Hollywood Reporter, won Best Entry by a Young Journalist for his reporting on the Church of Scientology buying up property in Hollywood, Calif.
• Jamie Smith Hopkins and Scott Calvert, Baltimore Sun, won for Best Investigative Report for a series of stories on homeowners illegally collecting tax breaks on multiple homes.

Oh, and MSN Real Estate's writers received a few awards, too. Leah L. Culler received the first-place award for Best Residential Real Estate Feature for her story on homes with secret rooms. I placed second in Best Real Estate Blog for "Listed."

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You can see a list of all the winners here.