The Assistant Secretary is the principal advisor for the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on overall departmental policy, programs, evaluation, economic analysis, research, and regulation of housing finance institutions. In her new position, Dr. Wachter will be responsible for developing and revising policy and program proposals, monitoring and evaluating programs and information, and coordinating policy development and research within HUD. Dr. Wachter, who received her B.A. in economics from Harvard/Radcliffe and her Ph.D. in economics from Boston College, has been Chairperson of the Wharton Real Estate Department and Professor of Real Estate and Finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania since July 1997. She has more than 20 years' experience in housing analysis and has pioneered work on homeownership affordability, including the identification of the impact of borrowing constraints on home ownership. Her current research focuses on housing affordability, real estate pricing, urban poverty, and housing abandonment. Dr. Wachter served as the first woman president of the American Real Estate Urban Economics Association, an association of real estate, housing, and housing policy economists, from 1988 to 1989. She has been editor of Real Estate Economics since 1997 and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Housing Policy Debate and the Journal of Housing Economics. Dr. Wachter was named a Homer Hoyt Institute Fellow in 1987 and has been a member of the Advanced Studies Institute faculty since 1989. She is the author of more than 100 scholarly publications and the recipient of many teaching awards. |
Dr. Susan M. Wachter has been named Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at HUD. She was confirmed by the Senate in late November and sworn in by HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo on December 2nd.