Karl “Chip” Case

I am deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Karl “Chip” Case. Chip was truly one of a kind, a man at once generous, brilliant and curious.

Zillow was born out of a groundswell movement among consumers, researchers and policymakers for more data around everything housing in America. And in no small part, that movement itself owes its beginnings to Chip Case’s work at Wellesley College and the groundbreaking home price index that bears his name.

Prior to the index Case developed alongside Yale University economist Robert Shiller, there was very little transparency in housing beyond what one could glean at a dusty local registry office or by poring over years of county tax records – which wasn’t much. The kind of “basic” housing data we take for granted today, the ability to see how a given housing market has performed over time and relative to other markets, was simply unavailable prior to Case and Shiller’s pioneering efforts.

Given housing’s outsized impact on both the economy and our everyday lives, it’s almost impossible to understate the importance of Case’s achievements in shining a light on this sector. The events of the past decade alone underscore this – and the Case-Shiller index has been providing this insight for upwards of 30 years.

Beyond Chip’s intellectual and academic achievements, what struck me most when I began our journey at Zillow was his intellectual curiosity, openness to new methods and ideas, and generosity of his time in thinking through better ways to understand housing markets. From our earliest days at Zillow, we were interested in exploring newer methodologies for creating housing indices that leveraged more data than was available when Chip and Bob first started out. Our efforts resulted in the Zillow Home Value Index, which uses a hedonic approach instead of the repeat sales methodology used by Case-Shiller.

Rather than being content at stopping at the considerable progress he’d driven personally, Chip always acknowledged that his work was a beginning, not the end, and he was eager to talk with us about new approaches. And his work continued beyond the Case-Shiller index. The Zillow Housing Confidence Index was born out of Case and Shiller’s seminal work at trying to illuminate not only home prices, but the underlying aspirations, expectations and assumptions of homeowners and buyers themselves. It’s important work that we’re proud to continue today in partnership with Terry Loebs at Pulsenomics, a close colleague of both Case and Shiller.

Chip will be greatly missed. He was always striving not only to keep a light on housing, but to make sure that light was as accurate, bright and unblinking as possible. May we all be inspired by his tireless, selfless devotion to the truth.