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.
The DFW suburbs have spent years absorbing population growth and new construction at a pace few metro areas can match. But in Burleson, a city in Johnson County about 20 minutes south of downtown Fort Worth, the market is splitting along a clear price line. Homes priced under $300,000 draw steady showing traffic, according to ...
Orange County, California, has long been treated as a single housing market in national coverage. But a widening gap between condos and detached homes is reshaping how properties move – and what they sell for – in communities like Rancho Santa Margarita, a master-planned city in the county’s southern interior. The split is not driven ...
A decade ago, first-time buyers in Chicago’s southwest suburbs were often younger and willing to fix up a home in exchange for a lower price. That buyer has largely disappeared. Ellen Williams is a residential agent with Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group in downtown Plainfield, Illinois. She says today’s first-time buyers are noticeably older and ...
Interest rates dominate conversations about buying a home right now. In the Detroit metro area, the housing market has softened modestly in recent months. For some buyers there, a fixation on rates may cost more than the rates themselves. Anthony Kellum runs Kellum Mortgage, a Detroit-based mortgage company that also serves Atlanta. His argument is ...
When home buyers evaluate Chicago’s western suburbs, many default to a simple rule: the closer to downtown, the more expensive. But that logic misses what actually drives prices in this part of the market, according to Sean Zhu of Frog City Realty LLC. Zhu works across the western and northern Chicago suburbs. He says the ...
The median age of a first-time homebuyer just hit 40, according to Larry Naselli, a residential real estate agent with Baird & Warner in Crystal Lake, Illinois. That figure reflects more than high prices and elevated interest rates. It also reflects a generation reaching financial adulthood later. Many start careers later, build savings later, and ...
Three years ago, buying a home in Citrus County, Florida, meant competing for scarce inventory in a market where sellers had no reason to negotiate. That dynamic has reversed. For buyers, the shift in leverage may matter more than any change in prices. Bruce Brunk, an agent with The Citrus County Dream Team at Keller ...
In a market where mortgage rates have squeezed monthly budgets, buyers on Chicago’s West Side are making a trade that would have seemed unlikely a few years ago. They are choosing homes that need work over homes that are move-in ready. A lower purchase price means a lower mortgage payment. For many buyers, picking up ...
In Cincinnati, a home insured for decades can become hard to insure the moment it changes hands. Many houses built before the 1930s still have knob-and-tube wiring, an early electrical system that runs ungrounded wires along porcelain knobs and through porcelain tubes. Buyers of these homes often hit a barrier many buyers and sellers don’t ...
Filing a home renovation permit and waiting weeks only to receive a correction letter listing problems you never anticipated is a common experience for homeowners. Each rejection round costs money in architect fees, contractor delays, and carrying costs on a construction loan. Most people blame slow bureaucracy. The actual cause, according to people who work ...
When comparing two similar condos in competing HOA communities, the one with lower monthly dues looks like the better deal. The opposite is often true: artificially low dues are one of the clearest warning signs that a community is headed for a special assessment. Joe Braun, co-founder and CEO of Solume, an Atlanta-based platform that ...
National headlines describe a housing market frozen by high rates, but Charlotte doesn’t fit that picture neatly. Homes are still selling there, and close to their asking prices. What has changed is how much separates the winners from the rest. A well-located, well-kept, realistically priced house still moves, while one that needs work or overreaches ...
In a tight housing market, it is easy to assume that sellers hold all the cards. Inventory is low, competition for good listings is real, and buyers in Northern Virginia have spent years feeling like they are on the losing end of every offer. But the assumption misses something important about who is actually listing ...
The policies getting the most attention in the national housing affordability debate — credit score competition, restrictions on institutional investors, streamlined credit reporting — share a common flaw: they target costs that are trivially small relative to the two forces actually driving affordability out of reach for most buyers. Those two forces are constrained housing ...
In the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs, two houses on the same side of town can have opposite outcomes. One goes under contract in two or three weeks. The other sits for 90 or 100 days with barely a showing. The difference, according to Heather Gill, a residential agent with eXp Realty who works across Carrollton, Plano, ...
