Kwame Donaldson

About Kwame Donaldson

With over 15 years of experience as a housing economist, I focus on a single challenge: translating massive, complex datasets into the strategic insights leaders need to take action.​As the Staff Economist at AppFolio, I bridge the gap between deep residential market analysis and executive decision-making. I produce an internal Economic Scorecard for senior leadership, manage the TAM methodology that drives the go-to-market strategy, and author public-facing Market Updates that distill noisy microdata into clear, actionable narratives.​My approach combines economic rigor with expertise in survey methodology and mastery in navigating and interrogating high-volume, multi-source data environments. Having navigated the systems environments of the U.S. Census Bureau, HUD, Moody’s Analytics, and Zillow, I specialize in stripping away jargon to find the \"so what\" behind the numbers.

Experience

1. Staff Economist

   AppFolio

   Mar 2023 — Present

   Drive strategic decision-making by translating complex residential rental market data into actionable insights using SQL (Snowflake), Python, and Tableau Produce \"The Economic Scorecard,\" a quarterly report that distills macro and microeconomic activity into strategic guidance for senior leadership Author research briefs and market updates on housing supply dynamics, shifting renter demographics, price trends, and related topics for both internal stakeholders and the broader real estate industry Manage the methodology for computing the Total Addressable Market (TAM), providing the analytical foundation for go-to-market strategies across business segments and sales territories

Education

• Georgia Institute of Technology

  Master of Business Administration (MBA), Information Technology

• Georgia State University

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Economics

• Rice University

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Economics, English