Housing’s Latest Impact, Part 2

Katy Marquardt came to U.S. News from Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, where she profiled rising stars in the mutual-fund world and wrote about investing in stocks and racehorses. Katy hails from Abilene, Texas, and graduated from the University of Texas-Austin.

Kirk Shinkle is a senior editor at U.S. News. Formerly, he covered business and economics on both coasts for Investor's Business Daily. A native of the Montana-Texas corridor, he currently resides in the wilds of west Brooklyn. His checkered online evolution looks like this: Friendster, still (!). MySpace, no. Facebook, yes. He blogs here, Twitters occasionally, and has yet to Tumblr.