LOS ANGELES, CA - Meyers Research, a Kennedy Wilson Company, unveiled Meyers Index, the first housing index of its kind dedicated to providing homebuilding professionals with a simplified solution for interpreting complex market data on-the-go. Designed exclusively for Zonda's intuitive mobile platform -- the dynamic iPad app launched by Meyers Research in October 2013 -- Meyers Index carefully curates a multiplicity of housing data into a single score, enabling developers and investors to understand the health of a specific market at any given time. With this latest game-changing innovation, Meyers Research further reinforces Zonda™ as the most comprehensive tool for smart business analysis and real-time market data reporting.
"We've combined the industry's leading housing and economics experts with Zonda's patented user interface to launch Meyers Index, which we believe is a groundbreaking approach to urban development," said Jeff Meyers, president of Meyers Research and founder of Zonda. "Meyers Index streamlines workflow, allowing developers and investors to gauge market attractiveness at every geographical level within minutes – insight that could take seasoned analysts weeks to compile and interpret."
Meyers Research's proprietary index measures the market impact of six key housing categories within Zonda: economy, community, pricing, sales, supply and distress. Performance indicators such as jobs, population, home values, foreclosures, as well as sales and permit activity, are carefully weighted to produce a score reflecting the desirability of housing development for a specific geographic area. Meyers Index is currently available at the national level, and scores range from zero (least attractive) to 1,000 (most attractive).
"Meyers Index is quite different from other housing indexes, bringing together the most comprehensive data set with which I've ever worked. It allows developers and investors to easily identify hot spots ripe for opportunity," said Henry Pollakowski, Harvard economist and leading housing and urban development expert. "Historically, this type of market insight would require years of analyst experience in order to devise strategies based on how various parts of a housing market interact. Meyers Index makes this accessible to decision makers at any level."
Meyers Research spent the past year working with leading housing and economics experts Richard Peiser and Henry Pollakowski to develop the functionality and design central to Meyers Index. With a combined 25 years of urban development and academic experience, Peiser, a professor of real estate and urban development at Harvard Graduate School of Design, focuses primarily on developers' response to the marketplace, with particular regard to urban redevelopment, affordable housing, and suburban sprawl. Pollakowski, who is also editor of the Journal of Housing Economics, focuses on modeling and data that bear on particular housing problems.
"I was blown away by Zonda and Meyers Index's ability to clearly and concisely convey large amounts of data through maps at every geographic level," said Peiser. "The app's intuitive design caters specifically to real estate professionals, who tend to be visually-oriented by nature. With Meyers Index, Zonda will continue to change the way homebuilders do business."
Zonda and Meyers Index are innovations by Meyers Research, which provides the housing industry with a national perspective and local expertise. Available for free download in the iTunes Store, Zonda provides services based on subscription level, which range monthly from $300 for local access to $10,000 for national access. Zonda targets the nation's 50 top metropolitan areas based on housing construction and includes market insight from more than 270 counties.