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Th e M Rep o RT | 5 Valuation Express report provides the right balance of quality and expertise of the local appraiser at the price points lenders require. This is exactly the solu- tion our clients have been asking for." Newly Launched Forecasting Model Predicts Uptick in Home Sales Powered by consumer trending data from google, 'nowcast' Provides a more timely view of buyer behavior. A new estimator of existing- home sales was introduced to the market at the end of October, and it's calling for a slight pickup in monthly transactions. With help from Internet giant Google, Auction.com announced the launch of Nowcast, a new housing report that combines industry data, proprietary company transaction data, and Google Trends' Internet search results to predict market trends as they're happening. The result is a statistical report released monthly, weeks before other closely watched real estate data is published. The new report is based on data modeling developed by Google's chief economist, Hal Varian, who described Nowcasting as "contemporaneous forecasting." "Google Trends data—which is anonymized, publicly available search information—offers valuable insights into current economic and consumer trends," Varian said. "By layering indus- try-specific transactional data and sub- ject matter expertise over that search data, organizations such as Auction.com are able to create powerful predictive models for accurately forecasting buy- ing behavior in the present and for the coming months." According to Auction.com, internal testing conducted for the months of April through September showed "con- siderable accuracy" in predicting market performance. Based on data collected for October, Auction.com predicts existing-home sales will fall between seasonally ad- justed annual averages of 4.97 and 5.38 million units, with a targeted predic- tion of 5.19 million. October's sales rate comes just above September's rate of 5.1 million (as predicted by Auction.com). Nowcast's development comes more than half a year after Google's growth equity fund, Google Capital, invested $50 million in Auction.com. Using that support and Google's access to con- sumer data and analytics, the company says it hopes to expand its monthly forecast to also predict new home sales and home pricing trends. "Auction.com's ability to deliver timely analysis of current market condi- tions can provide critical insight and enhanced predictability to industry pro- fessionals, economists, and government entities alike," said Rick Sharga, EVP for Auction.com. "Since real estate trends play such a vital role in our overall economy, there's a compelling need for accurate, timelier housing market forecasts, rather than data that comes out two to four weeks later." Black Knight Names Leader for Innovation Laboratory former dod consultant brings extensive exPerience with 'big data' to his new Position. D an Kenshalo has joined Black Knight Financial Services as the head of its Data & Ana- lytics division's Innovation Labora- tory, the company announced. In this position, Kenshalo will work in support of the Data & Analytics group's Advisory Solutions and Data Sciences team. Before joining Black Knight, Kenshalo was a senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he led a large professional services consulting team with a focus across multiple in- dustries. His experience includes exten- sive knowledge of Hadoop technology, an open-sourced software framework for data storage and large-scale process- ing that makes it possible to analyze large datasets to reveal trends. He also spent 12 years supporting the U.S. Department of Defense in de- signing and developing multi-petabyte systems for storing and accessing mas- sive amounts of data. "Dan brings a wealth of experience in both consulting, systems and tech- nology that can help our clients with a wide array of challenges, including the analysis, storage, and processing of rapidly growing datasets," said Kevin Coop, president of Black Knight's Data & Analytics division. from the source Read This Who's Your City? How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life By Richard Florida Choosing the city in which you live could be the most important decision you ever make. Not all places are created equal, and Richard Florida uses his signature intellectual originality to explain exactly why place matters now more than ever and defend the assertion that your happiness depends upon finding a city where you can thrive by balancing your personal and career goals. While refuting the information-age cliché that globalization has made place irrel- evant by using innovative research, Who's Your City provides indispensable tools that will help you choose the right place to live for you. Tweet This Do you like data? Sure you do. We can't live without it. It's the corner- stone of the housing industry, and it permeates every important business decision that you make. The twitter feed for Stan Humphries, Chief Economist at Zillow has data in spades. Do you need to know about the housing confidence rate in St. Louis, Missouri? Are you curious about which metro areas have the largest share of the millennial population? Stan's the man for the latest information affecting you and your bottom line. Watch This What's Hampering Housing? Millennials get a lot of the blame when it comes to the housing downturn. But the Collingwood Group's Tim Rood appeared on CNBC's Street Signs to argue that Generation X (Americans 35- 44 years old) should also shoulder some of the blame. Once thought of as the lost generation, they seem to be leaving the housing market at a disproportionately higher rate. It makes sense on some level. Many in this generation were burned by the collapse of housing. There is a 30-percent steeper decline in homeownership in Generation X than the overall drop.