Ex Trulia Chief Economist on Investing in Expansive and Expensive Cities (#007)

Ex Trulia Chief Economist on Investing in Expansive and Expensive Cities (#007)
Roger Bourget

Issi Romem was the chief economist at Trulia and had a Ph.D. in Economics from Berkeley. He is a published author with many papers on real estate trends, city real estate data and writes about the current pulse of real estate investment.

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Watch Selected Clips

Dr Issi Romem on Expansive Investing in Real Estate Part I (007 1)

Dr Issi Romem on Expansive Investing in Real Estate Part II (007 2 )

Dr Issi Romem on Zoning criteria in Real Estate Investing (007 3)

Dr Issi Romem on Millennials Investing in Real Estate (007 4 )

Dr Issi Romem on The Silver Tsunami in Real Estate Investing Part I (007 5 )

Dr Issi Romem on The Silver Tsunami in Real Estate Investing Part II (007 6 )

Podcast Description

Growing up in Israel, Issi has always cared about cities, liked looking at buildings and maps from an early age. He is using his background in economics to assist Trulio and other startups with publicity through research.

He talks about the affordability crisis, outward expansion, and suburban sprawl, their patterns, and the increase in density of cities since the 1970s. Traditionally, we have used suburban sprawl to build homes for populations outside of cities, however, once this sprawl slows down, the prices of housing are being pushed up. As a result, we are seeing cities on the coast, such as California and the Northeast becoming very expensive.

Grand Policy Changes, how the cost of living in expensive cities drives industries and careers available in these cities, and how development patterns can change are all variables that drive investment opportunities. A new trend in coastal towns is people coming into coastal cities from other countries overseas. The challenge for cities is to increase growth while keeping the cost of living from exploding.

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Guest Bio

Dr. Romem is the founder of MetroSight and a fellow at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at U.C. Berkeley. He has also served as Chief Economist of Trulia and Senior Director of Housing & Urban Economics at Zillow. His research on metropolitan growth patterns, construction trends, and housing has been featured in major publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and more. He regularly speaks at industry and research forums.

Prior to that, Issi served as Chief Economist of BuildZoom, advised the Rentonomics team at Apartment List, and worked as an economist at OnPoint Analytics and the Bay Area Council. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University, and a Ph.D. in economics from U.C. Berkeley, where he has also taught as an adjunct professor.