Deadline to enter the 74th Annual competition was March 1, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST for entries published in 2023. Details about NAREE’s 75th Annual Real Estate Journalism Competition will be posted in the fourth quarter.

Fees: Members and non members pay $75 for the first entry which also covers 2024 NAREE membership dues, and $25 for each additional entry. Use the “Enter Now” box above.

In February of each year, prospective media members and renewing media members: It’s much faster (a one-step process) during contest time to use the journalism contest entry module (“Enter Now” box above) to pay for membership and to enter the contest at the same time. With the “Enter Now button” you’ll input contact and payment information one time. If you use the Join/Renews tab during contest time (February 1 to March 1) you’ll have to click through three steps: 1.) The Join/Renew module will ask you to enter contact information and credit card information. 2.) Then you will need to email the NAREE office for a 2024 paid member coupon code and wait for it to arrive. 3.) And finally, you’ll have to input your contact information and payment information again to enter the contest module. So go to “Enter Now” above and skip the extra steps.

If you are not a paid NAREE 2024 member, your $75 journalism contest processing fee entitles you to 2024 membership in NAREE.

Eligibility:

Entrants must be independent journalists working for the news division of independent news outlets — covering new home building, green building, architecture, interior design, home buying and selling, mortgage lending, all aspects of commercial real estate and more topics in the broad field of real estate.

  • Bona fide digital, print and broadcast journalists — freelance or staff writers, reporters, editors, columnists and broadcast producers — covering residential and commercial real estate, mortgage and real estate finance, the business of real estate, home and urban design, home building, luxury, green building, architecture, remodeling, housing policy, real estate investing, and other topics in the broad field of real estate are eligible for work published in bona fide news outlets.

  • A question to help you determine if this contest is for you: Are you producing journalistic content in the service of a real estate company or a real estate-related association? If you can answer "yes" to the above question, this is not the right competition for you. NAREE’s competition is open to working journalists members and non members who qualify for NAREE membership. NAREE defines its media membership this way:

Active members shall have as their principal occupation the reporting, transmitting or editing of information about real estate and/or housing for a news media that is independent of a sponsoring organization or advertising control. (Principal occupation means more than 50 percent of their time.)

Contest Deadlines:

  • The work entered must have been published, posted, or aired between Jan. 1, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2023. Work must be written or broadcast in English. Work published, posted or aired outside the US may be entered.

  • Competition entry forms must be submitted online on or before March 1, 2024 by 11:59 PM EST on naree.org through the contest portal.

Submission Requirements:

Please have all PDF attached files, links and summaries ready before initiating the entry submission process. Files must not be larger than 100 MB. Accepted formats: PDF, MP3 and MP4. If you are entering a category that requires 3 pieces of work such as Categories #2 or #3 "Best Collection of Work" consolidate the three pieces into a single PDF and a single link.

Why judges need PDFs:

Link errors occur more frequently than you think and slow down the judging process. Sometimes passwords to links are also faulty. If the judges can’t open a a link, they can’t judge it.

Faulty links may be due to entrant error or software developer changes on your site. Sometimes usernames and passwords to links expire after multiple clicks or before the contest judging is complete. Some links to websites take the user to the live site instead of the work entered in 2024 but produced in 2023. The judges understand that links may provide a fuller picture of the entry, but if they can’t open the links, then they have nothing to judge.

Entrants may submit only one (1) entry per category, but may enter as many categories as they choose after determining eligibility. Click here to see all categories.

Competition judges reserve the right to decide if an entry is in the proper category, and to move those they determine need reassignment as well as not to make awards in a particular category.

Writers may enter their own work in any category. An entry entered in any of the individual categories may also be used as one of the three entries in the Best Collection of Work categories, but entrants must submit this piece both in the "Best Collection" category 2 or category 3 and the other category of your choice. In other words, every time you want to enter that same story, you need to send in a PDF (and include a link if you would like) of that story for that particular category.

Editors must enter the work of each individual staff reporter and/or freelancer with an individual byline by paying the processing fee (membership fee) for that staff member or freelancer associated with that byline. If an editor is entering work with a joint or multiple byline (and the editor’s name is not on that byline), the editor must pay the processing fee (membership fee) for at least one bylined member of the team.

Editors must enter their own bylined work in any eligible individual category under their own membership or processing fee. 

Editors must enter a print or digital newspaper section, magazine, newsletter or Web site under their own membership or processing fee.

Each completed entry in each category must include:

1. Entry Fees

Paid 2024 NAREE Members: First entry is free. Second entry and each additional entry is $25.

Non members - $75 processing fee for the first entry. Second entry and each additional entry is $25. Processing fee includes membership.

2. Entry Form

Each line must be completed on the form. (Entry may be disqualified if lines are skipped. Provide the email and phone number of the bylined journalist. There is a spot for the contest coordinator’s contact information as well)

3. Summary

Attach a brief summary (no more than 150 words ) describing the intended audience for the publication, Web site or broadcast. Explain why the entry serves the target audience, what is original about the story idea/content, why the reporting is innovative, and if applicable, how a creative risk was taken. If social media was used, please explain why it was significant. Note: judges request summaries be included for each entry because they rely on them for context. Please enter your paywall password at the end of the summary. Remember PDF s are more reliable than links..

4. Entry

Submit at least one PDF, MP3, MP4 or link.

Include passwords for all entry links behind a paywall in the summary field. Make sure the paywall password doesn't expire until December 1, 2024, and can be used multiple times, by the same user - judges and contest administrators. Remember, if the judges can’t open it, they can’t judge it. So if you experience paywall issues, or expect a code to change, it’s much safer to upload PDFs, and much more convenient for the judges.. Paywall passwords do not count as part of the 150 words in the summary.

Tip for uploading links: if you are experience trouble uploading links, please refresh your screen or quit and re-start your browser and try again.

Categories 2, 3, and 21 require more than one work sample to be judged. Category 20 can include a single investigative report or all parts of an investigative series. Please make a single PDF for all of the work to be judged as a single entry. You may also upload a single link with all three samples, rather than 3 separate links which require three times the time to open.

Best Web site Entry - category #29, include a URL, username, and password for access to view in the summary. Judging criteria will include editorial content, design, and ease of use. Passwords to open all links must not expire until December 1, 2024 and must allow judges to use it multiple times.

Freelance journalists with one entry only, please note:

If you are a freelancer with a single entry for this contest in any of the categories requiring a single piece of work and you also want to enter that piece in the Best Freelance Collection (which does not require an extra fee):

  1. Create a PDF containing ALL 3 (three) pieces of work required for Best Freelance Collection. Position the piece you want judged in the individual category first, then add the other two pieces.

  2. Upload the PDF or specify the link in any one of these categories for individual journalists: 2-22. Work submitted in category 1, can only be submitted in category 1.

  3. At the end of your summary, please confirm by headline that the first piece is the entry to be judged in the category and indicate by headlines that the second and third pieces of work are added to this category only to be judged as part of the "BEST Freelance Collection" – which requires THREE work samples. If you enter a category that requires three work samples such as Best Collection (catorgories 2 and 3) simply check the box indicating you want this entry judged for Best Freelance Collection. Please check the “consider for Best Freelance Collection box only once.

Judging

The competition wil be judged by journalism faculty of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Judges will be the sole arbiters of the awards. Judges may choose not to bestow an award in a particular category. Judges will consider criteria appropriate to the category including, but not limited to:

  • clarity of writing

  • objectivity

  • originality

  • depth of reporting

  • design (if applicable)

"Best Section," "Best Magazine," "Best Web site," and "Best Newsletter" entries will be judged on overall graphics presentation and use of graphic elements to help communicate the message to the readers.

2024 Award Categories

OVERALL AWARDS

Note: Judges need PDF submissions. You can also submit links, but links sometimes break.

Platinum Award - Best Overall Individual Entry - Real Estate (Chosen from single-bylined entries in categories 2-22) $1,000 cash award

President’s Award - Best Freelance Collection - Real Estate (Chosen from 3 single-bylined pieces submitted by the same freelancer in categories 2-22) $500 cash award

Ruth Ryon Award - Best Young Journalist - Real Estate (Chosen from single-bylined entries in categories 2-22 submitted by journalists who were 30 years or younger on Dec. 31, 2022) $250 cash award

CATEGORIES

Note: Categories 1-13 recognize the work of a single journalist and must have a single byline. Categories 14-22 allow single or multiple bylines. Category 23 recognizes a team of journalists and requires at least two bylines. Awards for work entered in categories 24-29 recognize the work of publication editors and writers.)

Gold Awards in categories 2-29 comes with a $250 cash award. Award certificates will be presented to Gold, Silver, Bronze and Honorable Mention winner at NAREE’s award ceremony at the annual conference. All winners are invited to NAREE’s full Conference. Conference, June 18-21 in Austin, Texas at the Hyatt Regency hotel. Awards Day is Thursday, June 20, 2024. SAVE THESE DATES! NAREE can help award winners with hotel costs.

SECTION I: INDIVIDUAL AWARDS, ALL MEDIA, SINGLE BYLINE - Multiple bylined submissions will be disqualified.

Category 1: Kenneth R Harney Award for Best Real Estate Consumer Education Reporting ($1,000 award) Submit a single-bylined in-depth report, column or series of up to three reports in any medium – print, online or broadcast – with a single byline – that show dogged, original enterprise reporting on current real estate policy and practices impacting the consumer – including mortgage finance, real estate brokerage, housing affordability, discrimination and other watchdog issues. Submit a single PDF or one link to the work to be judged. The winning entry chosen for this award is not eligible to win an award in any other category.

Category 2: Best Collection of Work by an Individual Covering Residential Real Estate (Submit three single-bylined stories)

Category 3: Best Collection of Work by an Individual Covering Commercial Real Estate (Submit three single-bylined stories )

Category 4: Best Regular or Syndicated Real Estate Column (Column submissions are limited to writers who have a regular column in a print or online publication, or to non-columnists who publish a column in a regular guest column space. (Single byline work only. Entrants must explain in the summary how their piece is a column rather than a story.)

Category 5: Best Economic Analysis - Real Estate (Single byline)

Category 6: Best Interior Design Story (Single byline)

Category 7: Best Architecture Story (Single byline)

SECTION II: INDIVIDUAL AWARDS - DAILY OR WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS – PRINT OR DIGITAL, SINGLE BYLINE - Multiple-bylined submissions will be disqualified.

Category 8: Best Residential Real Estate Story – Daily or Weekly Newspaper (Single byline)

Category 9: Best Residential Mortgage or Financial Real Estate Story – Daily or Weekly Newspaper (Single byline)

Category 10: Best Commercial Real Estate Story – Daily or Weekly Newspaper (Single byline)

SECTION III: INDIVIDUAL AWARDS – MAGAZINES – PRINT OR DIGITAL- SINGLE BYLINE - Multiple-bylined submissions will be disqualified.

Category 11: Best Residential, Residential Mortgage or Financial Real Estate Magazine Story – General Circulation (Single byline)

Category 12: Best Residential Real Estate Trade or B-to-B Magazine Story (Single byline)

Category 13: Best Commercial Real Estate Trade or B-to-B Magazine Story (Single byline)

SECTION IV: INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM AWARDS – ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

Category 14: Best Online Residential, Mortgage or Financial Real Estate Story - (Story should have a residential focus.) (Single or multiple bylines)

Category 15: Best Online Commercial Real Estate Story (Single or multiple bylines)

Category 16: Best Real Estate E-Newsletter – A daily or weekly news compilation by an editor or writer with a lede graph and briefs that link to the main-bar stories written by the newsletter author and/or other reporters. The e-newsletter, covering residential and/or commercial real estate, should be no more than 2,500 words (not including links) - and be delivered by email. (Single or multiple bylines)

SECTION V: INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM AWARDS – ONLINE or BROADCAST – COMMERCIAL OR RESIDENTIAL

Category 17: Best Audio Real Estate Report – Online or Broadcast – Podcast or Radio – local, network, subscription or internet channels (Commercial or residential, by one or more journalists)

Category 18: Best Video Real Estate Report Online or Broadcast – Streaming or Television – local, network, subscription or internet channels (Commercial or residential; by one more more journalists)

SECTION VI: INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM AWARDS – ALL MEDIA - COMMERCIAL OR RESIDENTIAL

Category 19: Best Breaking Real Estate News Story (Commercial or residential; single or multiple bylines)

Category 20: Best Investigative Report or Investigative Series - Real Estate (Commercial or residential; single or multiple bylines)

Category 21: Best Multi-Platform Package or Series - Real Estate; Story package URL can include audio, video, text, photos, graphics or interactive features (Commercial or residential; single or multiple bylines)

Category 22: Best International Real Estate Story (Commercial or residential; single or multiple bylines)

SECTION VII: TEAM AWARDS – ALL MEDIA, MULTIPLE BYLINES REQUIRED - COMMERCIAL OR RESIDENTIAL

Category 23: Best Team Report - Commercial or Residential Real Estate (Multiple bylines required)

SECTION VIII: INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM AWARDS – (Award recognizes the work of the publication staff and its editor(s) - digital or print - categories 24-28; digital - category 29)

Category 24: Best Design, Home or Shelter Magazine

Category 25: Best Residential Real Estate Trade Magazine

Category 26: Best Commercial Real Estate Trade Magazine

Category 27: Best Real Estate Newsletter- A comprehensive deep-dive (not a summary for the purpose of linking to top stories) into topics pertaining to Residential, Commercial, Mortgage or Financial Real Estate, Luxury, Green Building, Home, or Urban Design - Submit 1 newsletter. (This award recognizes the work of the publication writers and its editor.)

Category 28: Best Newspaper Real Estate or Home Section

Category 29: Best Real Estate Web Site