Cara Eisenpress

Cara Eisenpress' editor's note for The Real Deal February 2026 touches on distress buyers, the Alexanders' trial and fights over development.

I t's hard to track the moment when the world accepted private property, but the 17th century was pivotal for the concept. It's not that you couldn't claim land as yours before, just that rights more often came with inheritance or maybe a certain kind of communal ownership. But after philosopher John Locke argued that if you own your body, you own your labor, it caught on that if you worked a piece of land and made it productive, it could — or maybe should — belong to you.

Titled “HOMES ARE FOR PEOPLE, NOT CORPORATIONS,” the bill may not make it through the House's version of the package — or past the President's desk. But it has already spurred debate over whether limiting companies that buy homes will benefit people in search of affordable, appealing housing.

A story about developer Shanna Khan and her commitment to Chicago's Fulton Market anchors this month's issue of The Real Deal.

Cara Eisenpress, managing features editor, on the May 2026 issue stories and why unmitigating desire is blessing and curse in the industry

The Swig Equities and Helmsley Spear owner is advising the Business Improvement District on underutilized commercial real estate.

But there's a problem. The hands closing the deal in this month's cover art have too many fingers, and they're in impossible positions. The intentional uncanniness gets at the anxiety created by this year's shifts in artificial-intelligence technology. New versions of the bots, raised on human output, can write code, tell stories, conduct analysis, give advice and draw pictures. But they are still a little foolish.

As tech firms lay off and investment flows to data centers instead of office towers, commercial real estate searches for the real impact.

Los Angeles' Runyon Group tells TRD about plans to pioneer overlooked Water Mill village with record $39M retail buy.

South Florida’s Jills Zeder Group is the top residential team in the country by such a wide margin that the second-place team brings in only half their dollar volume. Katherine Kallergis’ reporting on the three principals — Jill Eber, Jill Hertzberg and Judy Zeder — found no dispute of their dominance. But hanging onto the top is a different challenge. The group has one massive advantage: Political and economic realities have sent a flow of high-net-worth buyers, especially billionaire CEOs, from California, Illinois and New York, to their territory. But beyond the good luck (for them), they display a mastery […]