John Donegan
John Donegan distinguishes himself through his focus on how real estate development intersects with socioeconomic equity and major civic events in Long Beach, moving beyond transactional property reporting to examine community impact.
Affordable Housing Advocacy
Donegan consistently covers housing projects serving vulnerable populations, documenting the opening of a 67-unit complex for low-income seniors and homeless veterans and reporting on the Long Beach Rescue Mission's new youth shelter expected to fill "immediately". His coverage of an "affordable housing project" highlights developers overcoming "lots of battle scars" and lawsuits before breaking ground in East Long Beach.
Olympic Development Tracker
He provides ongoing coverage of real estate transformations tied to the 2028 Olympics, including Denmark becoming the "2nd country to place its national house in Long Beach" and detailed reporting on The Pike's $50 million sale with plans for $20 million in improvements before the Games. His work connects international investment to local infrastructure changes.
Commercial Real Estate Analysis
Donegan examines commercial property shifts affecting city operations, such as weapons builders opening missile frame factories and Voyager Technologies' 140,000-square-foot facility. He investigates economic implications like Long Beach's request to "President Biden: can we have our $25.8 million now?" and logistics challenges regarding "where the trucks go when the Vincent Thomas Bridge closes".
Policy Impact Specialist
His reporting connects real estate to regulatory changes, including Long Beach's crackdown on "Problem Airbnbs with Stricter Rules, Enforcement" and coverage of a sales tax hike proposal "to protect healthcare". Donegan documents how city policies affect development patterns, such as the decision to "ban high-powered e-bikes on sidewalks" amid safety concerns.
4 more real estate journalists.
Aaron Elstein
Aaron Elstein brings a Wall Street reporter’s eye to commercial real estate. He is a senior reporter at Crain’s New York Business, where he covers large office towers, Midtown corridors, landlords, lenders, investors and regulators. His reporting shows how ownership decisions, bank balance sheets, capital markets and regulation shape property values and risk. He also covers banking, finance and Wall Street, including bank mergers and investment firms. Before joining Crain’s in 2003, he wrote Heard on the Street columns for The Wall Street Journal and covered bank mergers for American Banker. Elstein reports by closely reading footnotes, contracts, regulatory filings and legal documents. His investigative work has examined executive payments, pension funds, tax enforcement and tenant harassment. His coverage places deals, disputes and enforcement actions within broader financial and property cycles.
Aaron Moselle
Aaron Moselle covers housing and community development for WHYY’s PlanPhilly, filing for radio and the web. He stands out for connecting market data and government action to displacement, affordable homes, and the daily questions facing renters and homeowners. His core beat is housing affordability and market strain, including high mortgage rates, rising prices, tax assessments, and what they mean for buyers, sellers, and renters. He also reports on preserving and creating affordable housing, neighborhood rehab efforts, major real estate deals, and the effect of property sales on residents. His work often uses direct sourcing, plain language, and service journalism to make policy and finance clear.
Aarthi Swaminathan
Aarthi Swaminathan is a personal finance reporter at MarketWatch whose distinctive beat connects residential real estate with household budgets. She covers housing prices, affordability, mortgage rates, financing, insurance, remodeling and the costs of owning a home. Her reporting examines overvalued and fast-rising markets, ZIP-code trends, second-home sellers, builders, developers and buyers facing higher borrowing costs. She also follows Gen Z buyers, owners trapped in weakening condo markets and neighborhood conflicts over development. Her work pairs data-driven housing analysis with detailed case studies of buyers, owners and sellers. She explains complex market data in clear, accessible language and writes news features, personal-finance explainers, Economic Report stories, The Big Move and New American Playbook. She won a silver award for Best Collection of Work by an Individual Covering Residential Real Estate.
Abbey Ferguson
Abbey Ferguson stands out for reporting how major commercial moves and redevelopment plans reshape the built environment, especially the real estate deals that reveal what land and retail space are worth. She covers Central Texas commercial real estate and development for KWTX, with recent stories on land valuation, major transactions, retail redevelopment, and infrastructure planning. Her work has tracked an $80 million data center site offer in Hill County, a prospective Trader Joe’s location in Waco, and a planning project using artificial intelligence to predict traffic patterns. She writes as a news reporter, staying close to the numbers, public records, brokers, officials, and landowners. Her stories turn contract prices, appraisal data, and listing history into plain explanations of what buyers are betting on and how those deals affect surrounding property owners and nearby businesses.