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Portrait of Conor Dougherty

Conor Dougherty

I am interested in how housing and land shape our economy and society. These days, that often means writing about how the rising cost of housing has become a huge burden on families and altered what it means to be middle class.

Before joining The Times I worked at various local and national newspapers including the L.A. Business Journal, San Diego Union-Tribune and The Wall Street Journal. I am also the author of the book “Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America.” Most of my career has been focused on the economy and housing, but I have also covered technology, banks, entertainment, the golf industry, skateboarding, beer and video games. I am mostly interested in good stories and how business and the economy create what we call culture.

I am originally from the San Francisco Bay Area (I was a kid in San Francisco proper then went to junior high and high school in the Napa Valley) and have lived there as well as Los Angeles, San Diego and New York. I had a sort of weird route to journalism: I majored in chemistry and was a high school math teacher in Berkeley. My first journalism job was a $10 an hour, no benefits position as a researcher. I worked my way up from there then moved back and forth across the country, only to end up in L.A.

As a Times journalist, I adhere to the standards of integrity outlined in The Times’s Ethical Journalism handbook. I want all of my work to be accurate and fair. I protect my sources. I do not accept gifts, money or favors from anyone who might figure into my reporting. I do not participate in politics, nor do I make political donations. I make every effort to understand issues from multiple angles. When I am working, I identify myself as a reporter for The Times.

The articles I write are inspired by the stories people tell me; please use this form to get in touch with me. What kinds of housing pressures are you dealing with and how have they affected your life and your community? What housing topics do you think need more attention?

Latest

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    The Billionaires’ Secret Plan to Solve California’s Housing Crisis

    A company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying land in the Bay Area in the hopes of building a new city.

    By Michael Barbaro, Conor Dougherty, Rikki Novetsky, Michael Simon Johnson, Eric Krupke, Will Reid, Marc Georges, Chelsea Daniel, Marion Lozano, Diane Wong, Rowan Niemisto and Chris Wood

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    The Great Compression

    Thanks to soaring housing prices, the era of the 400-square-foot subdivision house is upon us.

    By Conor Dougherty

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    The Farmers Had What the Billionaires Wanted

    In Solano County, Calif., a who’s who of tech money is trying to build a city from the ground up. But some of the locals whose families have been there for generations don’t want to sell the land.

    By Conor Dougherty

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