Joe Wlos

I'm a data nerd and news junkie, interested in the intersection of politics and technology, housing policy, and financial markets. I strive to investigate problems, discover their causes, and (when possible) communicate and implement their solutions.

I studied political science at Grinnell College in Iowa, and after graduating, I worked as a data analyst in Chicago and New York. Now, I am renovating a house in New Orleans and developing a new property tax solution for Cook County homeowners, Bungalow Taxes, which specializes in filing 'lack of uniformity' appeals.

Property Tax Appeals

Bungalow Taxes | Spring 2023

In recent years, commercial property tax appeals in Cook County have grown more aggressive, shifting a substantial tax burden onto homeowners. Solomon Miller and I founded Bungalow Taxes to help Chicagoland residents reduce their bills and ensure a fairer tax system.

Our 2023 analysis indicated over half a million homeowners in Cook County may benefit from a 'lack of uniformity' appeal, which qualifying homeowners can complete in under five minutes on Bungalow Taxes' website.

Vaccine Hesitancy

INTRVL | Summer 2021

To better understand the concerns of Americans who were hesitant or resistant to the COVID-19 vaccines, INTRVL surveyed thousands of Americans during Summer 2021.

With our partner, Up to Us, we developed a public dashboard, which helped our team more effectively target advertising for the COVID-19 vaccines and generated customizable infographics for social media. The dashboard was a finalist for the 2022 Reed Award for "Best Data Visualization."

Red Mirage

Hawkfish | Summer 2020

A record number of voters mailed their ballots in 2020. My team, led by Dr. Ellen Konar, estimated timelines for the counting of vote-by-mail ballots, assessed these timelines' partisan effects, and developed a communications strategy to forewarn delays on election night.

Our metaphor, the Red Mirage, was extensively featured in the press, mentioned over 200,000 times on Twitter – including tweets from 2,000 verified accounts – and won the Shorty Award for "Polls & Surveys."

Links

Find me on social media, see some of my code, or learn more about my work.