KCET'S SoCal Connected and American Public Media's Marketplace Team Up to Explore America's Real Estate Meltdown Through the Story of One Los Angeles Home

Contact: Jacqueline Cartier
(651) 290-1113

KCET'S SoCal Connected and American Public Media's Marketplace Team Up to Explore America's Real Estate Meltdown Through the Story of One Los Angeles Home

Los Angeles - January 4, 2011 - SoCal Connected, KCET's hard-hitting weekly news program, and Marketplace, American Public Media's acclaimed public radio business show, are teaming up to take a tough look at the housing market crisis through one Los Angeles home. The special report ñ "Lot 354: A Tale of Americaís Housing Meltdown" ñ will premiere on KCET's SoCal Connected and on public radio stations across the nation on Marketplace on Thursday, January 13, 2011.

Reported by Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal, "Lot 354" will trace the property from savvy investment boom to foreclosure bust and back again. Participants in the piece will include the couple who bought the home low in 2002, improved it, and sold it 4 years later at almost triple the price; the couple who bought high and lost the home to foreclosure; and the couple who bought it this year at a fraction of the price it sold for in 2006. The story also will include Lot 354's real estate broker, an auctioneer, and a housing banker who will discuss why the home's life on the Los Angeles real estate market reflects the true story of the lending practices that contributed to the crisis in America's housing market. SoCal Connected's Val Zavala and Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal will anchor the program, and will look at how economic forces led to the housing crisis and what the future may hold for both buyers and sellers.

"Lot 354: A Tale of America's Housing Meltdown" will include an online component at KCET.org/SoCalConnected. Content will include a guide for home buyers and sellers as well as advice on what to look out for in any real estate transaction. Marketplace.org will feature additional interviews with the key figures in the Lot 354 story as well as the latest housing market research and statistics.

ìLot 354: A Tale of Americaís Housing Meltdownî is produced by SoCal Connectedís Rick Wilkinson and Marketplaceís Nancy Farghalli, Megan Larson and Jonathan Karp. SoCal Connectedís anchor is Val Zavala, and the executive producer is Bret Marcus. Kai Ryssdal is the host and senior editor of Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, Marketplace airs on 89.3 KPCC at 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m and on KCRW 89.9 FM at 2:00 p.m. Visit marketplace.org to find local station listings. SoCal Connected airs Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. on KCET and is available on-demand at www.kcet.org/socalconnected.

About Marketplace

Marketplace is public radio's award-winning daily magazine on business and economics news. The 30-minute program airs weekday evenings on nearly 350 public radio stations nationwide and boasts the largest audience for any business program in the United States reaching more than 5 million listeners weekly. Produced by American Public Media, Marketplace, Marketplace Morning Report, Marketplace Money and Marketplace Tech Report cover everything business from the stock market to the supermarket.

About SoCal Connected

SoCal Connected, winner of the Peabody Award, the duPont-Columbia Award, 11 Emmys, eight Golden Mikes, including Best News Public Affairs Show, 18 LA Press Club awards for journalism, recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best News Documentary, and Los Angeles Magazineís ìBest New Local TV Programî of 2009, airs Thursdays (9:00 ñ 9:30 p.m.), Fridays (8:30 ñ 9:00 p.m.), Saturdays (6:00 ñ 6:30 p.m.) and Sundays (6:30 ñ 7:00 p.m.), exclusively on KCET. For more information, to view episodes online or to post comments, please visit www.kcet.org/socalconnected.

SoCal Connected is made possible through the generous support of The Ahmanson Foundation, serving the Los Angeles community since 1952; Jim and Anne Rothenberg; Maddocks-Brown Foundation; The Elizabeth Hofert-Dailey Trust; The John Randolph Haynes & Dora Haynes Foundation; Akaloa Resource Foundation; The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, UCLA and U.S. Bank.