Alejandra Rodriguez-Villamizar is a communications specialist, editor, and researcher based in Medellín, Colombia, with experience working at the intersection of investigative journalism, strategic communications, and multimedia storytelling.
She is currently Editorial Consultant at KeyCrew, where she leads and refines editorial processes, and manages and mentors the editorial team. Before this role, Alejandra coordinated multimedia content production and designed impact metrics. She conducted in-depth research on organized crime across Latin American countries, contributing to investigative reports that inform public debate and policy discussions. Her career also includes work in digital strategy and audience engagement at University College London, where she supported the Anthropology Department’s outreach and career initiatives.
Alejandra holds a BA in Communications and Journalism from Universidad EAFIT and an MSc in Politics, Violence and Crime from UCL, graduating with distinction. Her work is grounded in a people-centered approach that combines rigorous research, clear storytelling, and strategic thinking to generate social impact.
In the D.C. metro area this summer, homes are sitting longer than they did a year ago. Many sellers instinctively slash the asking price. But that reflex may be costing them money. Time on market is not always a pricing problem. Sometimes the issue is presentation, timing, or simply the pace at which the right ...
When property taxes rise sharply in a market where rents cannot keep pace, landlords do not simply absorb the cost. They sell. In Montgomery County, Texas, that pattern is accelerating. It is creating a ripple effect: renters are displaced, the market floods with additional inventory, and buyers gain leverage. Maria Borrego, a Realtor with 20 ...
Across Polk County, Florida, days on market have stretched into the 90s and sellers are granting concessions on the majority of transactions. The surface data looks soft. But below $200,000, according to Jen Lay, team leader and listing specialist at The Lay Group with eXp Realty in Lakeland, the market operates under entirely different conditions ...
Most housing markets follow interest rates, inventory cycles, or seasonal weather patterns. In Weber and Davis County, Utah, the dominant variable is simpler: when school starts and when it ends. In a region defined by large families and strong ties to local school systems, real estate activity compresses around the academic calendar in ways that ...
The mortgage industry’s cost structure has a built-in exclusion mechanism. The Mortgage Bankers Association estimated the average cost to originate a mortgage loan in 2024 at approximately $9,000 per loan once labor, technology, compliance, and overhead are counted, and other industry benchmarking puts the figure even higher, with credit unions reporting a per-loan average closer ...
In most markets, active inventory represents a fraction of recent sales. In Conroe, Texas, one of six cities within Montgomery County, there are currently 1,860 active properties on the market while only 2,275 sold over the past six months. That near-parity between supply and absorption tells a clear story about where this north-Houston-area market sits ...
The U.S. residential market has been stuck at roughly 4.1 million annualized transactions for four consecutive years, according to Craig McClelland, a partner at McClelland & Hahn Consulting who advises enterprise-scale real estate, proptech, and fintech companies on structural business changes. That figure becomes a structural problem when measured against the infrastructure many brokerages erected ...
In much of the country, residential real estate has shifted toward balance or outright buyer advantage over the past year. Parts of North Jersey haven’t followed that script. Some towns in Passaic, Morris, and Bergen counties are still operating with two to two-and-a-half months of inventory, well below the six months that typically signals equilibrium. ...
National headlines suggest property insurance is collapsing everywhere. Coverage is shrinking, premiums are skyrocketing, and owners are getting squeezed. According to Andrew Kowalske, Chief Product Officer at Blitz Insurance, the picture is more specific. Most markets are moving in a direction that favors property owners right now. Kowalske’s perspective comes from the excess and surplus ...
Many first-time buyers in San Antonio are following the same strategy: wait for lower mortgage rates, then buy. But that math may be missing a critical variable. The concessions and builder incentives available today exist precisely because the buyer pool is thin. When rates drop and more buyers enter the market, those perks disappear, and ...
When buyers cross the Hudson River from New York to Jersey City, most calculate their discount against Manhattan pricing, how much less per square foot they’ll pay compared to the island they just left. According to Patrick Southern, team leader at SERHANT (Properties by Southern) and a broker active in Jersey City since 2003, Manhattan ...
Every spring, a fresh wave of buyers floods the North Jersey housing market. By August, many have quit, outbid repeatedly, watching homes sell for tens of thousands over asking, and deciding to try again next year. That annual attrition creates a quieter window in the fall. Not a buyer’s market, but a measurably less competitive ...
The assumption that larger down payments protect against foreclosure has shaped U.S. lending rules for decades. But recent research suggests the relationship between equity and default is far weaker than policymakers assumed – and that a different variable predicts mortgage failure more reliably. Alexei Alexandrov, Senior Advisor at the Housing Finance Policy Center at the ...
When rents climb, or new construction runs over budget, most people blame material costs or labor shortages. But in fast-growing Sun Belt metros, a less visible problem is inflating project budgets: the declining quality of architectural and engineering plans. Incomplete or poorly coordinated designs introduce confusion on job sites, trigger costly change orders, and push ...
After a 24-month boom in 2020 and 2021 that pushed annual home sales to 6 million units nationally, the real estate industry has settled into a prolonged flat stretch, around 4.1 million units annually for four consecutive years. The brokerages built for the boom never restructured for the plateau. According to Craig McClelland, a partner ...
