National Association of Real Estate Editors Announces 2014 Robert Bruss Real Estate Book Award Winners
Houston – June 17, 2014 – (RealEstateRama) — The National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE) has named the winners of the Seventh Annual Robert Bruss Real Estate Book Awards. The awards recognize excellence in books published in 2013 covering the broad field of real estate.
Author Charles Montgomery won the first place Gold Award in the Bruss competition for his book: “Happy City,” published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. NAREE’s judges commented that Montgomery’s book is “A refreshing look at our cities.” Judges were, “amazed at the ways happiness can be promoted or discouraged by the built environment.”
Lisa Prevost took the Bruss Silver Award and First-Time Author Award for her book: “Snob Zones: Fear, Prejudice and Real Estate,” published by Beacon Press. Prevost’s book takes a “novel approach at explaining the impact of targeted zoning and how such policies are used to exclude,” the judges commented. One judge noted, “the writing is excellent and given the wealth of detail in the various accounts, the author has done extensive research.”
Winner of the Bronze Award was Marianne Cusato with Daniel DiClerico, for “The Just Right Home:
Buying, Renting, Moving — or Just Dreaming — Your Perfect Match,” published by Workman Publishing Company. The book contains “Valuable insight for anyone choosing a home,” the NAREE jurors said. It also “Helps us understand ourselves and our relationship with our homes and communities.”
NAREE’s esteemed panel of judges have many decades of experience as editors and former NAREE leaders.
Allen Norwood, freelance editor, retired homes editor, Charlotte Observer and past NAREE vice president, judged the Bruss Book Competition along with two NAREE past presidents: Judith Stark, freelance editor/writer and retired real estate and homes editor, St. Petersburg Times and Earni Young, freelance writer and retired real estate columnist/city hall reporter, Philadelphia Daily News.
This year’s winners demonstrate NAREE’s broad reach in real estate from urban planning to finance and commercial and residential real estate. The awards were presented June 13 at NAREE’s 48th Annual Real Estate Journalism Conference in Houston. All of the award winners received cash prizes.
NAREE’s Bruss Book Awards program is named for the late Robert Bruss, syndicated real estate columnist, prolific writer and a longtime NAREE leader. Bruss, who died in 2007, frequently wrote reviews of realty books. The Bruss Book Awards are sponsored by NAREE past presidents Leigh Robinson, founder of Express Publishing/author of “Landlording,” and Brad Inman, founder Inman News and Vook, with a special gift from Art Michaels, executor of the Bruss estate.
NAREE, a nonprofit association of writers celebrating 85 years of service to real estate writers, was founded in 1929.
Contact: NAREE Executive Director, Mary Doyle-Kimball for more information at 
