HouseCanary with Travis Jungroth

Summary Housing is something that we all have experience with, but many don’t understand the complexities of the market. This week Travis Jungroth talks about how HouseCanary uses data to make the business of real estate more transparent. Brief Introduction Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great. I would like to thank everyone who has donated to the show. Your contributions help us make the show sustainable. When you’re ready to launch your next project you’ll need somewhere to deploy it. Check out Linode at linode.com/podcastinit and get a $20 credit to try out their fast and reliable Linux virtual servers for running your awesome app. You’ll want to make sure that your users don’t have to put up with bugs, so you should use Rollbar for tracking and aggregating your application errors to find and fix the bugs in your application before your users notice they exist. Use the link rollbar.com/podcastinit to get 90 days and 300,000 errors for free on their bootstrap plan. Visit our site to subscribe to our show, sign up for our newsletter, read the show notes, and get in touch. To help other people find the show you can leave a review on iTunes, or Google Play Music, and tell your friends and co-workers Join our community! Visit discourse.pythonpodcast.com for your opportunity to find out about upcoming guests, suggest questions, and propose show ideas. Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Travis Jungrot about HouseCanary, a company that is using Python and machine learning to help you make real estate decisions. Interview with Travis Jungroth Introductions How did you get introduced to Python? What is HouseCanary and what problem is it trying to solve? Who are your customers? Is it possible to get data and predictions at the neighborhood level for individual homebuyers to use in their purchasing decisions? What do you use for your data sources and how do you validate their accuracy? What are some of the sources of bias that are present in your data and what strategies are you using to account for them? Can you describe where Python is leveraged in your environment? What are some of the biggest software design and architecture challenges that you are facing while you continue to grow? What are the areas where Python isn’t the right choice and which languages are used in its place? What are the biggest predictors of future value for residential real estate? Can your system be used to identify risks associated with the housing market, similar to those seen in the bubble that triggered the 2008 economic failure? What are some of the most interesting details that you have discovered about real estate and housing markets while working with HouseCanary? Keep In Touch HouseCanary Website Twitter Travis Twitter Github Picks Tobias Railsea by China Miéville Kraken by China Miéville Travis DDT On Writing Well by William Zinser Links Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA