Trulia hires Issi Romem as new chief economist

Trulia welcomes Issi Romem to the team

US-based property portal for residential real estate, Trulia, has hired a new chief economist. Issi Romem previously worked as the chief economist at BuildZoom and is a fellow University of California, Berkeley

Popular home listing portal Trulia has hired Issi Romem to serve as the company’s new chief economist, giving him one of the highest profile platforms in the U.S. to discuss housing trends, the Zillow-owned company announced today.

Romem previously worked as the chief economist at contractor search portal BuildZoom, and is also a fellow at Terner Center for Housing Innovation, a part of the University of California, Berkeley. Romem has economics degrees from Berkeley and Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

At Trulia, Romem will lead economic research and use “extensive neighborhood-level data to provide timely industry insights on both national and local housing market trends, demographic shifts and economic policies,” according to a company statement.

The company also stated in an email that Romem “will cover everything from home prices and search patterns to consumer surveys and monitoring demographic shifts.”

In a recent blog post, Romem wrote that “our current moment could be the most interesting time in decades to follow housing in America.” He went on to discuss skyrocketing home prices in coastal cities, saying that a lack of sprawl was partially driving those increases.