About Smart Moves

Smart Moves provides consumers with practical real estate advice given in an easy, engaging style. Using lively, straightforward prose, prize-winning newspaper and magazine writer Ellen James Martin brings a journalist's experience to her national real estate column, demystifying the complicated financial and lifestyle issues facing anyone who buys, sells or finances a home.

Though real estate markets are regional in many respects, Smart Moves addresses the common elements present in all markets, citing sources from all over America. Martin's expertise stretches beyond the financial to include such topics as blending two households into one, finding a top school district,and dealing with boomerang offspring.

About Ellen James Martin

A former Baltimore Sun reporter, editor and columnist, Ellen James Martin's stories and columns have appeared in a variety of newspapers and other print and digital publications, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Money, Self, Success, Venture, and Fortune. She is a former contributing editor and columnist for Institutional Investor, a leading Wall Street magazine read globally. She is a co-author of "Writing About Business: The New Knight-Bagehot Guide to Economics and Business Journalism," published by Columbia University Press.

Martin has made numerous appearances on network television, including ABC's "Good Morning America" and CNBC. She co-hosted "Location, Location, Location" on the Home & Garden Television (HGTV). Her commentaries have been heard frequently on "Marketplace," and "Marketplace Morning Report," public radio shows from American Public Media. She's received top awards from The National Association of Real Estate Editors, including "Best TV or Radio Report on Real Estate," and "The Best Body of Work" on real estate.

Martin was awarded a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in business and economics at Columbia University in New York. She also holds master's degrees in journalism and international affairs from Columbia. Martin, a former Baltimore Sun real estate editor, previously served as president and chair of the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE). Elected in 2013, Martin is an active resident-journalist member of the National Press Club. She’s based in Washington, D.C.