Binyamin Appelbaum covers residential real estate for The Boston Globe. He previously covered the banking industry for The Charlotte Observer, where he led the paper's reporting on mortgage lending and foreclosures. The work culminated in a 2007 series that won the George Polk Award for Economic Reporting and was a ο¬nalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Appelbaum, a Boston native, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. 