I’ll be posting the March reporting roundup either later today or tomorrow, but I caught this story in my inbox and I couldn’t resist mentioning it. Although the subject is “Journalists gamble on job security at the P-I,” the article contains some interesting information about one of our favorite local real estate reporters… (emphasis mine)
When Aubrey Cohen received an offer to become the real estate reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last August, he jumped at the chance. He’d already covered urban growth in Bellingham, didn’t want to leave Western Washington, and was willing to gamble that the P-I would survive its current legal battle.
“I decided that at the very worst, I’d have a job for a year, and it was a good job,” Cohen said.
Despite the P-I’s uncertain future, Cohen is among several reporters who joined the daily in the last year because they believe the career benefits outweigh the risks.
…
Eventually, though, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to advance his career while remaining in the Northwest. Cohen and his wife sold their home in Bellingham and now rent in Seattle while they wait for the JOA ruling. If the P-I goes under and he can’t find a job right away, Cohen reasons, the family can live off the money they made selling their Bellingham home.
Now why would Mr. Cohen be renting? For someone whose reporting seems to indicate a strong belief in continued double-digit appreciation for Seattle, the choice to rent seems… odd.
I mean come on man, you’re missing out on our area’s “extremely strong market fundamentals.” Don’t you know that “quite frankly, it’s time to buy”?
(Heidi Dietrich, Puget Sound Business Journal, 04.06.2007)