Cathy Ellis
Cathy Ellis writes for Rocky Mountain Outlook, covering how land use, housing policy and environmental decisions shape life in the Bow Valley communities the publication serves. Her real estate coverage centres on the rules and mechanisms that govern local housing, including Banff’s effort to eliminate the “book-ending” practice used to keep some homes below market value. She brings the same attention to policy detail and long-term impact to stories on parks management, wildlife and local institutions, creating a consistent focus on how official decisions play out on the ground.
Banff housing policy and below-market homes
Ellis’s real estate work is anchored in Banff’s highly regulated housing market, where she follows municipal efforts to keep homes affordable under strict local rules. In covering Banff’s move to end the “book-ending” practice, she explains a technical policy designed to keep designated properties below market value and shows how changing that policy could reshape ownership and pricing. Her treatment of the issue reflects a broader interest in the mechanics of local bylaws and the way they interact with demand, conservation pressures and community expectations.
Rather than writing about listings or market trends in isolation, she uses policy changes as the lens for understanding how housing works in a national park community.
Parks management, wildlife and environmental decisions
Alongside housing, Ellis reports extensively on decisions by parks authorities and their effects on local landscapes and species. Her award-winning coverage of Johnson Lake being drained to eradicate whirling disease shows her focus on how scientific assessments and risk management translate into concrete actions that alter familiar places.
In writing about grizzly bears returning to Banff National Park, she tracks shifting wildlife patterns and the accompanying expectations placed on residents and visitors, including reporting protocols and safety guidance.
Her article on a study showing climate change dramatically shrinking Banff’s alpine meadows brings research-led evidence into the local conversation, connecting global phenomena to specific habitats that readers know well. Across these pieces, she treats parks and protected areas as regulated spaces, explaining why agencies act, what data they rely on, and what those decisions mean for ecosystems and nearby communities.
Community institutions and screen time
Ellis also turns to schools and other community institutions when policy and evidence converge on everyday behaviour. Her coverage of Canmore’s Lawrence Grassi School taking a bold step on student screen time focuses on how educators respond to emerging research and social concern by reshaping rules inside the classroom. She follows the implications of such decisions for families, students and staff, treating the school as part of a wider network of local actors adapting to technological and cultural change.
This strand of her work complements her housing and parks reporting: in each case, institutions adopt new rules, and Ellis traces how those changes affect people’s routines and access to shared spaces.
Feature reporting and recognition
Ellis’s work at Rocky Mountain Outlook is consistently recognised in newspaper awards, particularly for feature reporting that combines strong narrative with clear explanation of complex issues. First-place honours for her coverage of Johnson Lake’s whirling disease response and the Lawrence Grassi School screen time initiative underline her strength in translating technical or contentious decisions into accessible stories grounded in specific places and stakeholders. Her contributions to coverage of Parks Canada matters, including financial and operational disputes around facilities such as Twin Falls Chalet, show her capacity to stay with a file across policy, enforcement and community response. Taken together, her portfolio distinguishes itself from generic beat reporting by treating housing, parks and institutions as interconnected systems, reviewed through the twin lenses of regulation and lived experience.
4 more real estate journalists.
Addie Morfoot
Addie Morfoot covers how real estate, culture and media meet, focusing on people, rules and the way homes shape a life. She reports for The New York Times on housing and lifestyle, from personal narratives about finding a home after loss to features on how short-term rental policy affects everyday owners and renters. She writes real estate stories that connect laws and regulations to the choices available to ordinary residents in specific towns and cities. She is a regular contributor to the Sunday Routine franchise, following actors, comedians and designers through a typical day and showing how settings like homes, studios and subway cars shape daily experience. She also has a long track record covering documentary film and the entertainment business, including legal questions around fair use, changing docu-series formats, festival premieres and financing. Her portfolio spans more than two decades of work for The New York Times, Variety, The Wall Street Journal and Crain’s New York Business.
Alcynna Lloyd
Alcynna Lloyd is a real estate reporter and economic journalist at Business Insider whose work is distinct for treating housing as a core economic system people must navigate. She covers how housing markets, costs, and mobility shape everyday life decisions, connecting data on rents, home prices, and city trends with stories of people managing debt, multigenerational living, and moves abroad. Her beat centers on housing costs, renters, and household strategies, following renters pushing back against landlords and tracking “desperate home sellers” using concessions in unaffordable markets. A second strand of her coverage focuses on relocation, remote work, and cheap cities as everyday economic strategies. She regularly uses rankings and lists, such as best and worst states to buy a home and Rising Stars of Real Estate, and reads city housing and migration shifts as signs of broader economic change.
Alec Lazenby
Alec Lazenby covers how provincial politics and government decisions shape housing, real estate and the wider social fabric. He reports for The Vancouver Sun from the provincial legislature. His work examines HousingHub, middle-income rentals, affordability, stalled projects, empty condos, developer layoffs, municipal housing targets and land use. He also covers health, addiction, safer supply, involuntary care, water rights, resource management, Indigenous rights and Crown land. Lazenby connects policy language to specific buildings, rents, projects, services and people. He explains financial, regulatory and market pressures, then follows how institutions, professionals, developers, municipalities and affected communities respond. His reporting tests government goals against practical outcomes and shows how policy reversals, construction costs, interest rates and political accountability shape housing and public life.
Amir Ali
Amir Ali links housing, disputes, and oddball neighbourhood stories in case-based, street-level reporting for Daily Hive. He holds a senior editorial and writing role, listed on the masthead as part of Vancouver leadership and described as a staff writer. His core beat is real estate, especially the rental market and housing affordability, tracking rent ranges, market shifts, and how pressures land on people trying to stay housed. He also covers crime, civil tribunals, and mental health, explaining decisions and conflicts in plain language that focuses on timelines, behaviour, and outcomes. Ali writes offbeat hyperlocal features, traffic and transport disruptions, business, food, and general local news, often turning infrastructure, small businesses, and civic systems into tangible stories. A former radio producer, he brings tight pacing and clear stakes to written pieces and maintains an active social media presence as a broadcaster and writer.