One of the most noted authorities on housing is about to take on an even larger as Zillow Group (Z) announced the promotion of Dr. Stan Humphries from Zillow chief economist to Zillow Group chief analytics officer and chief economist.
To fill Humphries’ role, Zillow announced the promotion of Dr. Svenja Gudell (pictured above) from her position as Zillow’s senior director of economic research to chief economist for Zillow.
With Gudell’s promotion, the two featured websites of the Zillow Group empire, Zillow and Trulia, will now both have female chief economists, as Trulia recently announced the addition of Selma Hepp to serve as its chief economist.
Humphries, who was featured as part in the February issue of HousingWire Magazine as one of “The new economists,” is one of Zillow’s earliest pre-launch employees and is the creator of the Zestimate, Zillow’s property value estimation tool.
In his new role with the Zillow Group, Humphries (pictured below) will oversee the company’s financial planning and analysis, corporate strategy, economic research, data science and engineering, marketing and business analytics, and pricing analytics.
In his additional role as chief economist of Zillow Group, Humphries will continue to serve as a thought leader and national expert on housing policy, Zillow said in a release.
Gudell, who joined Zillow in 2011, will take over as Zillow’s chief economist. In her new role, Gudell will be the face of Zillow’s housing research as she continues to lead Zillow’s economic research team as it produces monthly reports on housing trends for more than 450 metros nationwide.
Prior to joining Zillow, Gudell did economic, financial and strategy consulting for Analysis Group and was an assistant economist in the research group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
“I have worked closely with Svenja for the past four years, and I’m thrilled to promote her to this new role,” Humphries said.
“Zillow’s economic research team is focused on providing homeowners, buyers and sellers with valuable and actionable insight, based on rigorous data analysis,” Humphries added. “Svenja is well-suited to continue that work.”
Gudell said that she is “honored and excited” to take on an expanded role with Zillow, especially at a critical time.
“Today’s housing market faces some new challenges,” Gudell said.
“Millions of Americans remain upside-down on their mortgages. Some who are shopping for a home can’t find one to buy within their budget,” she continued.
“Rents are increasing rapidly, but incomes aren’t keeping up,” Gudell added. “These and other challenges continue to keep housing top of mind for consumers. Zillow’s mission, first and foremost, is to empower consumers to make informed housing decisions. I’m passionate about pursuing this goal as chief economist.”
