与许多分析师一样，常春藤泽尔曼经历了全美研究团队的力量，但它并不总是很漂亮。1997年，当时Salomon Brothers的公司萨洛蒙兄弟融入了史密斯巴尼的一部分，在建筑业，作为旅行者集团的90亿美元收购萨罗普，伊世纪施奈德在建筑业中排名第3。When it came time to pick which analyst would lead the coverage of homebuilders, management went with Smith Barney’s David Dwyer, who was ranked No. 2. “I was out of a job and miserable, because I’m very loyal, and I would have stayed at Salomon probably forever if they would have kept me,” says Zelman, 45, who grew up on Long Island and had joined the firm in 1990 after graduating from George Mason University in Virginia with a BS in accounting. It didn’t take long for Zelman to find a new home on Wall Street. In January 1998, Credit Suisse First Boston hired her at a premium to what she had been making at Salomon. “It’s like when baseball players get traded,” says Zelman, who moved up one notch in the ranking that year, narrowly losing to Dwyer (she also got married that year and changed her surname). “You really never know your market value until you go to your next firm.” In 1999, Zelman leapfrogged Dwyer to capture her first No. 1 crown, as investors rewarded her for being early to downgrade several homebuilders. Zelman’s bearishness would become legendary over the next few years, culminating in her December 2006 downgrade of the entire sector. “I am where I am today with my own firm because of calling the housing bust,” says Zelman, who left Credit Suisse in May 2007 and along with her husband, David, started Cleveland- and New York–based boutique Zelman & Associates. (Ivy is CEO and oversees research; David, a former Salomon salesman, is president and runs the business.)
泽尔曼今年赢得了她第十号标题（总体上的第18位），没有问题竞争独立。她的公司已经成长为25人，在波士顿和纽约设有办事处。她的年度住房峰会于9月举行了近450名与会者，只需一周后，泽尔曼在参议院在美国住房市场上的国家进行了作证。她的预测异常乐观。“美国梦寐以求的房东”并没有死，泽尔曼说。“我们的伟大国家仍在形成新的家庭，我预计人口和家庭增长以支持近三倍的水平的建设活动。”
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