Stan Humphries, Chief Economist

Stan Humphries is in charge of data and analytics. He helped create the Zestimate and its algorithm and is also in charge of calculating all statistics on the housing market, including the Zillow Home Value Index. Prior to joining Zillow, Stan spent five years at Expedia.com where he ran a team responsible for finding innovative ways to use data, building systems for personalization, pricing, forecasting, and fraud detection. Before Expedia, Stan served as a researcher and faculty member at the University of Virginia, and was previously with NASA where he negotiated international science agreements. Stan has also served in the United States Peace Corps, where he taught physics and chemistry classes in West Africa. Stan has a Bachelor of Arts from Davidson College, a Masters of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia. Stan is a frequent commentator on housing trends in the media and has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Fox Business News and in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and others. Follow Stan on Twitter: @StanHumphries.

Svenja Maarit Gudell, Senior Economist

Svenja joined Zillow in 2011 and is currently working on negative equity valuations and forecasting. She also works on foreclosure research and is involved in research collaborations with other organizations and academics. Prior to joining Zillow, Svenja completed her Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Rochester. Before starting her Ph.D. program, Svenja worked for Analysis Group in Boston, where she was part of various teams working on economic, financial and strategy consulting projects. She also worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she was an Assistant Economist in the International Research Group.

Dong Xiang, Senior Quantitative Modeler

Dong came to Zillow in 2005 as a senior quantitative modeler, where he helped develop the Zestimate algorithm. He also works on Zillow’s Real Estate Market Reports, and helps calculate our negative equity figures. Before he came to Zillow, Dong worked at Expedia.com, where he developed models for a real-time fraud detection system for air and hotel purchases. He has also worked at SAS Institute. Dong received his Ph.D. and his Master Degree in statistics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from Beijing University.

Yeng Bun, Senior Quantitative Modeler

Yeng joined Zillow in 2006 and plays a major role in the production and quality of our Real Estate Market Reports. He also developed and implemented parts of the AVM that produces Zestimates. Prior to joining Zillow, spent four years at Samurai EC and Lehman Brothers, where he developed parts of real-time systems for market makers to quote and trade stock options and FOREX with various exchanges. He has also worked at Insightful Corp. as a developer of statistical software and at QUEST Integrated, where he worked on research projects in areas of computational fluid dynamics, computer-aided engineering and water jet machining. Yeng holds a Ph.D. in Applied Math from the University of Washington.

Steve Brownell, Data and Analytics Specialist

Steve joined Zillow in early 2009 as a Data Analyst. His work touches many parts of the company including business intelligence, ad performance, pricing, and combing the real estate market for interesting data trends. Before working at Zillow he was an Associate Scientist at Passport Systems in Massachusetts where he helped develop Photon Accelerator-based Non-Intrusive Nuclear Cargo Inspection Systems for port security funded by the Department of Homeland Security. Steve has a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Northeastern University. Follow Steve on Twitter: @ZteveBr.

Katie Curnutte, Director of Communications

Katie joined Zillow in 2008 and leads the company’s data PR efforts. She manages the communications surrounding the Real Estate Market Reports and frequently works with economists from government institutions and academia who use Zillow data in their research. Before joining Zillow, she ran public relations for The Warren Group, a Boston-based company that collects public record real estate data. She has also worked as a real estate journalist. Katie has a Bachelor of Science in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Follow her on Twitter: @Katie_Curnutte.

Zillow Technical Advisory Board, Economics

Thomas G. Thibodeau, Ph.D.

Tom Thibodeau is the Global Real Estate Capital Markets Professor and the Academic Director of the CU Real Estate Center in the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder.  Tom is currently teaching Real Estate Finance and Investments and Real Estate Economics in the MBA Program at Leeds. He has taught courses in Real Estate Fundamentals, Real Estate Markets and Valuation, Real Estate Development, Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities, Managerial Economics and Macroeconomics.  Tom’s real estate  research has been published in numerous nationally recognized refereed journals including Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Urban Economics, Land Economics, Journal of Housing Research, Journal of Real Estate Research, Housing Policy Debate, Real Estate Review, Real Estate Finance and Property Tax Journal.  Between 2000 and 2006, Tom was an editor or Real Estate Economics.  He is a Past President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA) and a Fellow of the Homer Hoyt Advanced Studies Institute.  In 2008, AREUEA awarded Tom the George Bloom Award for “his outstanding contributions to the field of real estate.”  In October 2009, the National Association of Industrial Office Properties (NAIOP) Research Foundation Governors appointed Tom a NAIOP Distinguished Fellow.

Stephen Malpezzi, Ph.D.

Stephen Malpezzi is the Lorin and Marjorie Tiefenthaler Distinguished Professor in the Wisconsin School of Business’s Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Stephen is the Academic Director of UW’s James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, and has also served as Chair of the Real Estate Department. His research includes work on economic development, the measurement and determinants of real estate prices, housing demand, and the effects of regulation and other economic policies on real estate markets.  Among his numerous publications, he’s the author of A Primer on U.S. Housing Markets and Housing Policy (with Richard Green; Urban Institute Press, 2003; the second edition is forthcoming) and is currently finishing a book on local economic development. Stephen holds a Ph.D. in economics from The George Washington University, an M.A. in international affairs from the same university, and a B.A. in political science from LaSalle College.

Further details, including publications, can be found at: http://www.bus.wisc.edu/realestate/faculty/malpezzi.asp