Susan Wachter

Susan M. Wachter

Co-Director, Penn IUR

Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Finance, The Wharton School

About

Susan Wachter is the Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. From 1998 to 2001, she served as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the senior urban policy official and Principal Advisor to the Secretary. During her tenure at HUD, Wachter’s office was responsible for the New Markets Tax Credit, the major legislative initiative for urban revitalization, with the goal of attracting private capital into low-income communities. At The Wharton School, she was Chairperson of the Real Estate Department and Professor of Real Estate and Finance from July 1997 until her 1998 appointment to HUD. At Penn, she co-founded and currently is Co-Director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research. She also founded and currently serves as Director of Wharton’s Geographical Information Systems Lab. She was the editor of Real Estate Economics from 1997 to 1999 and currently serves on the editorial boards of several real estate journals. Wachter is the author of more than 200 scholarly publications and the recipient of several awards for teaching excellence at The Wharton School. Previous volumes include Fair Housing, Shared Prosperity in America’s Communities and Neighborhoods and Life Chances. Wachter has served on multiple for-profit and not-for-profit boards and currently serves on the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee of Fannie Mae and the Office of Financial Research Advisory Committee of the U.S. Treasury. She frequently comments on national media and testifies to Congress on U.S. housing policy.

Selected Publications

Acolin, Arthur, Xudong An, Raphael Bostic, and Susan M. Wachter. 2017. “Homeownership and Nontraditional and Subprime Mortgages.” Housing Policy Debate 27(3): 393-418.

Wachter, Susan M., Arthur Acolin, and Scott Bernstein. 2017. “Opportunity, Housing Access, and Infrastructure.” Housing Policy Debate 27(3): 468-471.

Wachter, Susan M. and Patricia Mccoy. 2017. “Representations and Warranties: Why They Did Not Stop the Crisis.” In Evidence and Innovation in Housing Law and Policy, edited by Lee Fennell and Benjamin Keys. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

Wachter, Susan M. and Joseph Tracy, eds. 2016. Principles of Housing Finance Reform. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Wachter, Susan M., ed. 2016. Public Pensions and City Solvency. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Acolin, Arthur, Laurie S. Goodman, and Susan Wachter. 2016. “A Renter or Homeowner Nation?” Cityscape 18(2): 145-158.

Acolin, Arthur, Jesse Bricker, Paul S. Calem, and Susan Wachter. 2016. “Borrowing Constraints and Homeownership.” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 106(5): 625-629.

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