John
Rogers
is
a
well-known
name
in
the
world
of
mortgage
and
real
estate
data
analysis.
The
globe-trotting


CoreLogic
executive
recently
earned
a
larger
role
at
the
California-based
company
and
is
now
serving
as
its
chief
data
and
analytics
officer.

Rogers
met
with

HousingWire
to
discuss
his
new
role
and
cover
a
variety
of
topics,
including

artificial
intelligence
(AI),
climate
risk
and
land
development.
This
interview
has
been
edited
for
length
and
clarity.

Neil
Pierson:
What
does
your
expanded
role
as
chief
data
and
analytics
officer
mean?

John
Rogers:
I’m
very
fortunate
to
be
in
the
role.
And
I
get
to
look
after
nearly
300
data
scientists,
data
gurus,
who
nurture
all
the
22,000
data
assets
that
come
into
the
company,
to
make
sure
it’s
the
right
quality.
We
have
amazing
data
scientists
who
are
building
out
new
models
—
from
reducing
premiums
on

wildfire
insurance
in
California
to
using
image
analytics
so
that
an
appraiser
can

capture
the
appraisal
in
real
time
and
use
it
for
quality
assurance.

I
look
after
the
dataset
and
all
things
related
to
property
location.
The
data
gurus
are
ensuring
the
quality,
finding
new
insights,
and
delivering
it
to
our
clients
and
our
solution
sets
that
face
off
into
real
estate,
mortgage,
insurance,
government
and
so
forth.
I’m
very
fortunate
—
they’ve
all
got
brains
the
size
of
planets.

NP:
AI
is
such
a
vast
and
complex
topic,
but
what
do
you
see
happening
right
now
in
that
space?
What
are
some
of
your
AI
initiatives
at
CoreLogic
to
sort
out
the
data
analysis
piece
and
more
quickly
and
efficiently
serve
your
end
user?

JR:
We
literally
have,
I
think,
just
under
100
initiatives
in
some
form
right
now
at
CoreLogic
that
are
underpinned
by
AI.
We
can
do
that
because
we
have
the
scale
and
we
have
the
infrastructure
in
place.
You
can
capture
appraisals
using
your
iPhone
—
images
and
video
and
talking
to
your
phone
—
to
fill
out
the
appraisal
form
at
a
high
quality.
That
is
taking
time,
cost
and
energy
out
of
the
process
and
allowing
the
appraiser
to
appraise
more
homes
or
spend
more
time
with
his
family.

We’re
also
working
to
reduce
wildfire
premiums
in
California.
The

insurance
commissioner
there
declared
13
resiliency
prerequisites.
We
use
AI
and
image
analytics
to
look
at
every
single
home
and
provide
that
insight
to
insurers,
who
then
can
reach
out
to
you
and
say,
“Hey,
we
can
reduce
your
wildfire
insurance
by
a
certain
percentage.”
Obviously,
insurance
premiums
have
skyrocketed.
We’re
all
feeling
the
pain
over
the
last
three
to
four
years.
In
Florida,

costs
have
risen
68%
over
the
last
three
years.
It’s
a
real
hot
potato.

There
are
so
many
things
we’re
doing.
One
that’s
in
the
oven
right
now,
in
the
attainable
home
area,
addresses
the

housing
shortage
of
about
1.6
million
in
the
United
States
for
families
of
low
to
moderate
income.
The
total
number
varies
between
4
and
5
million.

One
of
the
challenges
in
this
area
is
that
it
typically
takes
double-digit
months
to
several
years
to
get
approval,
the
tick
in
the
box,
to
build
homes.
We
can
now
do
that
in
an
afternoon.
We
can
literally
identify
land
to
build
a
certain
type
of
home
with
a
certain
type
of
material
at
a
certain
cost,
and
we
can
try
to
solve
the
conundrum
while
providing
an
ROI
back
to
the
developer.

NP:
You
touched
on

climate
change
issues
there,
which
leads
into
the
next
question.
What
is
CoreLogic
working
on
to
address
climate
change,
an
issue
that
will
only
grow
in
importance
in
the
coming
years?

JR:
We
want
to
make
sure
we
make
homes
more
resilient
and
protect
the
largest
asset
class
in
the
world
at

$45
trillion.
Unfortunately,
with
temperatures
rising,
you
see
the
frequency
and
intensity
of
major
weather
events
on
the
up.
Since
1980,
there
were
roughly
eight
major
weather
events
per
year
that
each
caused

over
$1
billion
dollars
in
damage.
Last
year,
there
was
28.

What
we
provide
the
market
is
something
called
climate
risk
analytics,
which
allows
companies
to
financially
measure
and
mitigate
the
impact
of
climate
through
every
single
property
up
to
the
year
2050.
Broadly,
for
every
$1
invested
in
making
a
home
more
resilient,
it’s
equivalent
to
about
$6
if
that
that
disaster
did
occur
and
you
need
to
rebuild
the
home.

NP:
Let’s
talk
specifically
about
flooding
related
to
climate
change.
The

National
Flood
Insurance
Program
(NFIP)
is
working
with
outdated
flood
zone
models.
Are
you
doing
any
work
in
that
area?

JR:
That’s
a
very
interesting
area.
Ninety-five
percent
of
all
flood
insurance
is
from
the
NFIP,
which
is
good
for
you
and
I
as
homeowners.
But
there
are
challenges
between
federal
and
state
authorities,
so
sometimes
flood
maps
at
the
state
level
are
not
updated,
even
though
it
has
been
requested.

Coupled
with
that,
we
supported


FEMA
in
building
out
something
called
Risk
Rating
2.0.
Imagine
we’re
going
from
a
first
version
of
a
Tesla
to
the
latest
Tesla
car
that
we
have
today.
Risk
Rating
2.0
is
basically
getting
down
to
the
flood
risk
per
house,
which
is
fantastic.

The
natural
inclination
is
with
insurance
premiums
is
“Oh
my
goodness,
everything’s
going
to
go
up.”
But
with
the
2.0
restriction,
when
we
looked
at
areas
in
Florida,
88%
of
current
premiums
would
either
go
down,
stay
the
same
or
go
up
by
$10
a
month.
No
one
likes
the
bill
going
up,
but
hopefully
that’s
tolerable
when
you’re
looking
after
your
biggest
asset.

NP:
You
work
directly
with
land
developers
too.
We’ve
heard
a
lot
of
discussion
about
these
issues
during

the
election
season.
What
sort
of
policies
are
you
helping
to
develop
on
their
end?

JR:
There’s
obviously
a
complex
set
of
issues
for
housing
development
—
where
to
build,

NIMBYism,
how
do
you
finance
it,
how
do
you
get
an
ROI?
We
need
to
really
galvanize
the
industry
to
reduce
that
housing
shortage.

There
are
a
lot
of
amazing
things
happening
in
the
U.S.,
from
what
some
of
the
states
are
doing,
to
private
investors,
to
the
big
building
developers,
to

3D-printed
houses.
I
would
argue
there
isn’t
a
connective
tissue
across
all
of
this,
and
there
isn’t
enough
of
a
movement
to
really
push
it.

We
have
a
coalition
we’re
harnessing
right
now
—
banks,
lenders,
insurers,
building
developers,
technology
companies
—
with
the
goal
to
reduce
that
1.6
million
deficit
of
homes.
We’ve
just
embarked
on
research
of
asking
these
1.6
million
people,
“What
do
you
want?”
It
might
sound
like
a
very
basic
question,
but
you
could
probably
argue
there
hasn’t
been
much
research
done
in
that
area.

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