January 26, 2022

What the Housing Data Is Really Saying

52 minutes

In today’s ever-changing housing market, how can you make sense of all the numbers and data? What do they mean for builders and home-buyers?

In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, Mike Simonsen is joined by Ali Wolf, Chief Economist at Zonda, to interpret today’s housing market data. Ali talks about the implications behind the number of new construction homes, millennial home-buying trends, and what forecasters are saying about the future housing market

About Ali Wolf

Ali Wolf is the Chief Economist for Zonda, the largest homebuilding proptech company in North America. As Head of the Economics Department, Ali manages and analyzes the content for Zonda, runs special research projects, and strategizes with the nation’s largest homebuilders. She gives presentations nationwide covering topics across the housing market and the broad economy. Ali is also the creator of Zonda’s proprietary indices, including the New Home Pending Sales Index and the New Home Lot Supply Index. Highly regarded as an industry expert, Ali is quoted frequently in national publications including CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Yahoo! Finance. She has also appeared on national and international TV and radio programs such as Bloomberg TV and Marketplace. Ali serves as an advisor to the White House, providing data and insights on the US housing market.

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

Ali Wolf shares how Zonda got started
How did Ali become interested in housing data?
Zonda’s strategies for collecting data
What is the housing index telling us right now?
The implications behind the rising number of new home constructions
Millennial home-buying trends
Do the numbers indicate a coming change in the market?
Market risks outlook
New releases from Zonda: the Zonda Affordability Ratio (ZAR)
Why “Zoom towns” are becoming more common
Where are the surprisingly affordable markets?
What are the signs of a falling market?

Featuring Mike Simonsen, CEO 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.

Resources mentioned in this episode: