Steve Brown, One of The Most Prolific Real Estate Journalists in The Country, Retires

After 47 years of writing real estate news fresh from college at SMU, the legendary Steve Brown is calling it quits as the Real Estate Editor at The Dallas Morning News.

The last time I talked to Steve, we were at NAREE’s version of speed dating. It’s not what you think! The “Meet the Press” event brings up the rear at the National Association of Real Estate Editors’ annual conference where real estate journalists get to chat with “pitchers” for all of three minutes, then move on to the next.

Steve, as the long-time real estate editor of The Dallas Morning News, always had a full dance card at speed dating. I said to him, in between his throngs, “Hi Steve, can you believe I ran for Dallas City Council?” To which he replied, “I cannot. I’m running away from all this as soon as I can.”

He may have been referring to the NAREE conference, or maybe he was referring to the business of journalism and covering both commercial and residential real estate in a city growing so fast its leaders can barely keep up.

A Prolific Career in Real Estate Journalism

Steve excelled in his role with an efficiency few writers, including this one, possess. He was also generous and supportive: more than once Steve shot an email my way about a story he couldn’t cover because it was about the business of real estate.

While the job may have been exciting in 1977, wrenching during the recessionary 1980s when the biggest real estate names in town couldn’t pay their bills, and exhilarating in the 1990s, by 2024 I can see sheer exhaustion. Real estate news now requires covering every piece of dirt from Sherman to Waco, Rockwall to the Mid-cities where you kind of bump up to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And, of course, the power is on line.

Steve had a research staff, and recently a little help with the hiring of Mitchell Parton, who joined the DMN real estate team in February of 2022, but left last November to become a staff reporter at the Dallas Business Journal.

At a time when media across the country has been slashing budgets, the DMN has been offering buy-outs to many veteran staffers of late in a move to cut costs amid declining print ad sales. This comes in the shadow of a News Guild writers union organizing to increase salaries and benefits. According to a source at the paper, Steve was not on the buy-out list as of three weeks ago.

Saying Goodbye to a Newsroom Legend

Dallas Morning News business editor Paul O’Donnell captured Brown’s spirit, particularly his notoriously well-known competitiveness, and his prolific dozen-plus stories a week, in the memo he sent to news staff Monday morning:

It’s hard to put into words what Steve’s departure will mean to our newsroom and The News as a locally-trusted brand.

For 47 years, Steve’s byline has graced The News. He’s as well known locally as anyone on our staff, with a reverence that’s only surpassed by the widespread respect Steve receives from his real estate peers across the country.

He’s the quintessential old-school meets new-age journalist. Steve’s urgency and competitiveness were instilled in The News’ legendary newspaper war with the defunct Times-Herald. He fondly tells his colleagues of the days when editors would cut out stories from the competition and leave them on writers’ desks with tersely worded notes.

In Steve’s case, the lessons learned in our industry’s ink-stained glory days translated exceptionally well to the digital world we live in now. He routinely breaks more news than anyone on staff (think Universal’s new Frisco theme park or Goldman Sachs’ big new downtown campus). He treats every story with an overriding desire to be first.

And, of course, his conversions and page views are legendary internally. (He personally accounted for nearly 10% of all of our digital conversions last year). He’s also one of our most prolific writers — averaging more than a dozen stories a week in 2023.

Yet he’s also one of the most down-to-earth people we’ve ever worked with. A couple years ago, when the National Association of Real Estate Editors honored him with a lifetime achievement award, the group’s leaders spent weeks surreptitiously gathering tributes to surprise him — fearing he wouldn’t show up if he knew what they were planning.

Dallas Morning News February 5, 2024

Brown, the legend, said simply and succinctly, “I’m leaving The News after 47 years in the business. It’s been an incredible job and I’m sure I will miss it.”

“Steve Brown is a legend in real estate news coverage. His insights, wit, stamina, productivity, and accuracy are unmatched,” said former Houston Chronicle real estate reporter Ralph Bivins, now editor of Realty News Report. “His knowledge of Dallas real estate is encyclopedic, his source network is deep, and he has a solid grasp of many real estate markets in the nation.”

Steve, an avid car collector, lives in East Dallas last I knew. He ran nearly every real estate panel for the MetroTex Association of Realtors as well as countless leadership positions at the National Association of Real Estate Editors. My only regret is that he seldom attended NAREE’s famous “Presidential Suite” after-conference parties; he was filing stories. Maybe now he will have the time to do something besides produce content.

“His work as President and long-time leader in the National Association of Real Estate Editors has been outstanding. Everyone looks up to him. I was really happy to see him receive NAREE’s Lifetime Achievement Award a few years ago,” Bivins said. “I admire his work and I am proud to call him a friend.”