Redfin announced Nela Richardson as the company’s first chief economist, where she will continue to lead and contribute to national housing market and policy conversations.

Richardson joins Redfin from Bloomberg LP, where she served as a senior economist with Bloomberg Government, along with serving in past roles in the mortgage industry, capital markets and financial policy.

“Redfin had to find a truth-telling economist with the guts and brains to make tough calls,” said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. “Nela fit the bill perfectly. She can analyze real-time data on the touring and offer activity of thousands of Redfin customers across the nation, combining that with deeper insights about changes to the home-buyer psyche or middle-class wage stagnation.”

Richardson will be able to pull and analyze the latest data from the multiple listing service, its home-buying and selling customers and its agents in real time.