Arielle Kass

Business reporter

Arielle Kass covers housing and money for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Prior to that, she covered retail business, including Home Depot and UPS. Arielle joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2010. Previously, she was a banking reporter in Cleveland, Ohio. Arielle is a graduate of Emory University, where she studied journalism and creative writing.

Latest from Arielle Kass

Georgia Commerce buying Brookhaven Bank

Georgia Commerce Bancshares is buying Brookhaven Bank in a deal that will make Georgia Commerce Bank into a $1 billion entity. It is the third merger between healthy banks since the end of August. Mark Tipton, chairman and CEO of Georgia Commerce Bank, said he expects more such mergers, and ...

SunTrust, Wells Fargo, Citigroup pay $1.3 billion in fines

SunTrust, Wells Fargo and Citigroup agreed to pay Freddie Mac a total of $1.3 billion related to bad mortgage loans they sold to the government-backed firm.Atlanta-based SunTrust agreed to pay $65 million, $25 million of which it had previously paid. The fines are related to 312,000 loans SunTrust made between ...

CredAbility merges with Virginia firm

The Atlanta credit counseling nonprofit CredAbility is merging with a Virginia nonprofit to create the second-largest such organization in the country. The combined company will be known as ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions, using the name of the Virginia merger partner. ClearPoint CEO Chris Honenberger will be the top executive of ...

How investor owners make their choices

American Home passes on stucco homes. Silver Bay Realty Trust avoids cedar siding. Investment companies that buy homes out of foreclosure or other distress situations usually can’t get inside them to see what kind of shape they’re in. Nor do they have the time or manpower to do so. Instead ...

Marilyn Kilby kisses her granddaughter Regan, 1, as she arrives home from work in the kitchen of her rental home owned by investors on Monday, Sept. 16, 2013, in Snellville. Kilby used to be an owner, and would like to be again, but lost her house to foreclosure when she lost her job. Working again she rented from an individual owner, but is now renting from a company.

Firms’ buying binge drives metro home sales

Otheree Bienville has seen lots of neighbors come and go in her nine years living in a Snellville subdivision. She’s never seen any with names like these recent arrivals, though: There’s IH2 Property Georgia LP, down the street. FREO Georgia LLC owns two houses nearby. Colfin AL-GA 1 LLC has ...

Metro home price increases slow

Home prices in metro Atlanta are still rising at double-digit rates, though the pace of the increase is slowing. Prices for the region rose 18.5 percent in July compared to the same month of 2012, according to the widely watched S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, released Tuesday. The increase means ...

‘Coast clear’ on metro foreclosure front

Metro Atlanta’s foreclosure tide continues to recede, with the number of new notices filed in September near a 7-year low. The latest report moved one housing industry expert to declare the end of a crisis that left the housing market awash in bargain-basement homes and pulled down home values for ...

Robert R. “Bobby” Weaver III, 27, was reported missing by his grandmother.

Disabled Newton County man missing

A disabled Newton County man has been missing since Thursday.No foul play is suspected in the disappearance of Robert R. “Bobby” Weaver III, 27. But his grandmother, Evelyn Weaver, said it was unlike her grandson to leave.“He’s never, ever left home. This is nothing that he does,” she said. “I ...

All lanes of I-75 North before I-675 were temporarily blocked after a wreck Sunday afternoon. (Georgia Department of Transportation)

Two people injured in Henry County crash

Two people were injured in a Sunday afternoon accident on I-75 North in Henry County.The crash closed all lanes of the highway before I-675, at exit 227, just after 1:30 p.m. All lanes reopened by 3:35 p.m.The accident involved a GMC Sierra and a Saturn passenger car, said Sgt. Joey ...

A plane brought Staff Sgt. Joshua Bowden, of Douglas County, to the airport for his funeral Monday.

Procession honors deceased Ga. soldier

A Villa Rica soldier killed in Afghanistan was honored Sunday with a procession as his body was returned to Douglas County. Army Staff Sgt. Joshua J. Bowden, 28, died Aug. 31 in Ghazni, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire while on patrol, ...