Top of Mind

Welcome to How’s the Market, our weekly look at what’s happening in the US housing market, powered by data from Altos Research.

If you want to see all the inventory, pricing, and supply and demand charts we reference in the show, head on over to our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/altosresearch.

Hosted by Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research.A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. Altos provides national and local real estate data to financial institutions, real estate professionals, and investors across the country, and the company is now part of HW Media, publisher of HousingWire and RealTrends. Mike uses Altos data to identify trends in the real estate market well before the headlines, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Fortune, Forbes and other publications.

In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen sits down with Julie Kheyfets, CEO of Block Renovation, to talk about what’s happening with home renovations this year and beyond.

About Julie Kheyfets

Julie Kheyfets is the CEO of Block Renovation, the AI renovation platform empowering

homeowners and contractors to build better together. Block’s AI delivers instant cost, scope, and design guidance tailored to each homeowner, powered by proprietary data from thousands of projects. By accessing Block’s vetted network of contractors, homeowners can discover the right professionals for their projects, rapidly receive easy-to-compare proposals, and hire with confidence, backed by Block’s project protections.

Before being appointed CEO, Julie served as Block’s COO, steering Block’s operations as the company evolved from a one-stop shop for renovations to an AI marketplace platform. Julie brings a strong track record of scaling AI to help consumers in complex industries. Before joining Block, she built and led the North America business for Tractable, the AI platform for accident and disaster recovery. During Julie's tenure, Tractable became the world’s first computer vision unicorn for financial services.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

Related to this episode:

Featuring Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research

A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. The company now serves the largest Wall Street investment firms, banks, and tens of thousands of real estate professionals around the country. Mike's insights on the market have been featured in Forbes, New York Times, Bloomberg, Dallas Morning News, Seattle PI, and many other national media outlets.

Follow us on Twitter for more data analysis and insights:

About Altos Research

The Top of Mind Podcast is produced by Altos Research.

Each week, Altos tracks every home for sale in the country - all the pricing, and all the changes in pricing - and synthesizes those analytics to make them available before becoming visible through traditional channels.

Schedule a demo to see Altos in action. You can also get a copy of our free eBook: How To Use Market Data to Build Your Real Estate Business.

The Top of Mind podcast features top real estate industry insiders and experts to unpack the most important housing, real estate, mortgage data and trends that are shaping the housing market. Hosted by Altos founder Mike Simonsen and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

Welcome to How’s the Market, our weekly look at what’s happening in the US housing market, powered by data from Altos Research.

If you want to see all the inventory, pricing, and supply and demand charts we reference in the show, head on over to our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/altosresearch.

Hosted by Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research.A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. Altos provides national and local real estate data to financial institutions, real estate professionals, and investors across the country, and the company is now part of HW Media, publisher of HousingWire and RealTrends. Mike uses Altos data to identify trends in the real estate market well before the headlines, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Fortune, Forbes and other publications.

Welcome to How’s the Market, our weekly look at what’s happening in the US housing market, powered by data from Altos Research.

If you want to see all the inventory, pricing, and supply and demand charts we reference in the show, head on over to our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/altosresearch.

Hosted by Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research.A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. Altos provides national and local real estate data to financial institutions, real estate professionals, and investors across the country, and the company is now part of HW Media, publisher of HousingWire and RealTrends. Mike uses Altos data to identify trends in the real estate market well before the headlines, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Fortune, Forbes and other publications.

In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen sits down with Dr. Orphe Divounguy, senior economist with Zillow's Economic Research team, to talk about what’s on the horizon for the housing market this year. Orphe shares the latest findings from Zillow’s 2025 forecasts, offers some surprising insights from Zillow’s rental data, gives us a framework for understanding mortgage rates and affordability in the U.S., and much more.

About Dr. Orphe Divounguy

Orphe Divounguy is a senior economist with Zillow's Economic Research team where he analyzes economic data to try and identify emerging trends in the housing market. In the past, Orphe’s work focused on quanÏtitative methods for evaluating the impact of economic policy. Orphe earned a doctorate in economics from England’s University of Southampton.

Orphe is also the founder of the Quantitative Research Group and the co-host of the Everyday Economics podcast.

The team’s research can be found at zillow.com/research and includes analyses about for-sale and rental market dynamics, fair housing, and other topics. Zillow also provides dozens of housing market datasets freely available for download at zillow.com/data.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Featuring Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research

A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. The company now serves the largest Wall Street investment firms, banks, and tens of thousands of real estate professionals around the country. Mike's insights on the market have been featured in Forbes, New York Times, Bloomberg, Dallas Morning News, Seattle PI, and many other national media outlets.

Follow us on Twitter for more data analysis and insights:

About Altos Research

The Top of Mind Podcast is produced by Altos Research.

Each week, Altos tracks every home for sale in the country - all the pricing, and all the changes in pricing - and synthesizes those analytics to make them available before becoming visible through traditional channels.

Schedule a demo to see Altos in action. You can also get a copy of our free eBook: How To Use Market Data to Build Your Real Estate Business.

The Top of Mind podcast features top real estate industry insiders and experts to unpack the most important housing, real estate, mortgage data and trends that are shaping the housing market. Hosted by Altos founder Mike Simonsen and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

Welcome to How’s the Market, our weekly look at what’s happening in the US housing market, powered by data from Altos Research.

If you want to see all the inventory, pricing, and supply and demand charts we reference in the show, head on over to our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/altosresearch.

Hosted by Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research.A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. Altos provides national and local real estate data to financial institutions, real estate professionals, and investors across the country, and the company is now part of HW Media, publisher of HousingWire and RealTrends. Mike uses Altos data to identify trends in the real estate market well before the headlines, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Fortune, Forbes and other publications.

Welcome to How’s the Market, our weekly look at what’s happening in the US housing market, powered by data from Altos Research.

If you want to see all the inventory, pricing, and supply and demand charts we reference in the show, head on over to our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/altosresearch.

Hosted by Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research.A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. Altos provides national and local real estate data to financial institutions, real estate professionals, and investors across the country, and the company is now part of HW Media, publisher of HousingWire and RealTrends. Mike uses Altos data to identify trends in the real estate market well before the headlines, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Fortune, Forbes and other publications.

In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen sits down with Bill McBride from Calculated Risk to talk about what to expect in the housing market in 2025 and beyond.

About Bill McBride

Bill McBride is a housing market expert and the author of the popular economics blog and newsletter “Calculated Risk”, which Nobel laureate economists have cited as a “go-to website for housing matters.” Bill may be best known for accurately predicting the housing bubble in 2005, and the bottom in housing prices in early 2012.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Featuring Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research

A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. The company now serves the largest Wall Street investment firms, banks, and tens of thousands of real estate professionals around the country. Mike's insights on the market have been featured in Forbes, New York Times, Bloomberg, Dallas Morning News, Seattle PI, and many other national media outlets.

Follow us on Twitter for more data analysis and insights:

About Altos Research

The Top of Mind Podcast is produced by Altos Research.

Each week, Altos tracks every home for sale in the country - all the pricing, and all the changes in pricing - and synthesizes those analytics to make them available before becoming visible through traditional channels.

Schedule a demo to see Altos in action. You can also get a copy of our free eBook: How To Use Market Data to Build Your Real Estate Business.

The Top of Mind podcast features top real estate industry insiders and experts to unpack the most important housing, real estate, mortgage data and trends that are shaping the housing market. Hosted by Altos founder Mike Simonsen and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

Welcome to How’s the Market, our weekly look at what’s happening in the US housing market, powered by data from Altos Research.

If you want to see all the inventory, pricing, and supply and demand charts we reference in the show, head on over to our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/altosresearch.

Hosted by Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research.A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. Altos provides national and local real estate data to financial institutions, real estate professionals, and investors across the country, and the company is now part of HW Media, publisher of HousingWire and RealTrends. Mike uses Altos data to identify trends in the real estate market well before the headlines, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Fortune, Forbes and other publications.

Welcome to How’s the Market, our weekly look at what’s happening in the US housing market, powered by data from Altos Research.

If you want to see all the inventory, pricing, and supply and demand charts we reference in the show, head on over to our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/altosresearch.

Hosted by Mike Simonsen, President of Altos Research.A true data geek, Mike founded Altos Research in 2006 to bring data and insight on the U.S. housing market to those who need it most. Altos provides national and local real estate data to financial institutions, real estate professionals, and investors across the country, and the company is now part of HW Media, publisher of HousingWire and RealTrends. Mike uses Altos data to identify trends in the real estate market well before the headlines, and his work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Fortune, Forbes and other publications.