Property data giant CoreLogic is upping its home valuation game with some machine learning.
The publicly traded company has inked a deal with Minneapolis-based Pushpin, a company whose platform can automatically pick out property parcel information from aerial imagery, noting attributes such as how many stories or what type of roofing a home has as well as whether there have been any changes to the parcel.
“Pushpin is one of the only companies applying cutting-edge deep learning techniques to aerial imagery to automatically extract features and identify changes,” said Mikhail Palatnik, CoreLogic’s executive of product management, in a press release.
“Going forward, we expect machine learning to be critical to creating and maintaining accurate property records, which our customers rely on.”
CoreLogic has a database of 147 million properties in the U.S. and provides estimated property values based on parcel attributes to government assessors and insurance companies.
Right now, human analysts at CoreLogic do the “tedious” work of manually assigning attributes to properties, according to the release.
“Leveraging machine learning will enable CoreLogic to dramatically reduce costs and increase update frequency for its database,” Pushpin said.
In an email, CoreLogic spokesperson Alyson Austin said it was “too soon” to know how the deal would affect cost reductions and update frequency, but that “[t]here are no plans to let any staff go at this juncture as a result of this deal.”
“CoreLogic expects reduced costs and the ability to update its property database more frequently, but doesn’t know which costs will be reduced or how much or how often it will be able to update its database,” she said.
She said she did not know how often the database was currently updated.
CoreLogic’s valuation technology includes homes price indexes, automated valuation models (AVMs) and software for appraisal vendor management, appraisal management companies and mortgage lenders and servicers.
CoreLogic has boosted its valuation tech in recent years through acquisitions and last month announced its intent to “accelerate” the transformation of its appraisal management company operations “through the greater use of data-driven analytics, automation of workflows and enhanced utilization of its dedicated staff appraisers.”
Asked when the partnership with Pushpin will go live, which specific CoreLogic products would be affected, what exactly will improve for CoreLogic customers and for further examples of the type of information Pushpin will be extracting for CoreLogic, CoreLogic declined to comment, deferring those questions to Pushpin.
Pushpin’s founder and president, Randy Milbert, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
According to Pushpin’s release, the aerial imagery it uses is collected by Australian company Nearmap and Pushpin counts Maricopa County, Arizona; Lee County, Florida; and Hillsborough County, Florida as customers, among others.
CoreLogic is not the only company taking advantage of advances in machine learning to boost home valuations. Last month, Clear Capital unveiled a new AVM that draws upon machine learning to calculate what is says are unusually accurate home value estimates to help mortgage lenders with tasks including pre-valuation, portfolio valuation, home equity situations and underwriting.
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