Compass is looking to up its game by hiring a chief economist. And the nation’s top brokerage by sales volume announced Monday that it has appointed Mike Simonsen to the role.
As the founder of housing market data firm Altos Research, Simonsen is no stranger to housing market trends and analysis. Altos was acquired by HW Media, the publisher of HousingWire, in 2022. Simonsen remained with the company and served as the president of Altos until he stepped down from the role in May 2025.
“Mike has a unique ability to take complex housing data and turn it into something everyone can understand,” Robert Reffkin, the founder and CEO of Compass, said in a statement. “So when we had the chance to bring him to Compass, we didn’t hesitate.”
In this new role at Compass, Simonsen will focus on helping agents and their clients better understand housing market analytics in real time. He will also work with Compass to shape the brokerage’s market reports and power its data-focused content.
“My personal mission has been to help people understand the housing market and I’ve been working on that for 20 years,” Simonsen told HousingWire. “In the time I spent building Altos, Compass came on to the scene and became the biggest brokerage in the country by sales volume — they reach a ton of people and they have 37,000 agents.
“My new role really helps me continue what I’ve been working on for so long — helping agents communicate to buyers and sellers and understand the market.”
Simonsen said he’s excited to leverage Compass’s size and scope as the nation’s largest firm by volume to unlock even more data and insights.
“I hope to expand the way I talk about the market with even more insight than I’ve had before,” he said.
As the real estate industry faces the third year of a home sale recession, Simonsen said he’s looking forward to helping people better understand the market.
“It is a really compelling time,” he said. “Consumers and professionals want to know when the market is changing, which direction it is going in and if home sales finally pick up. Also, there is the broader economy — are we on the cusp of a recession?
“All of these things are critical for them to understand. It is a fascinating time to be analyzing the housing market and to be in the industry.”
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