Susan Wachter

Susan Wachter is the Sussman Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Real Estate and 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 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 is the 2022 recipient of the John M. Quigley Medal for Advancing Real Estate and Urban Economics from the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA). Wachter has served on multiple for-profit and not-for-profit boards and on the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee of Fannie Mae and the Office of Financial Research Advisory Committee of the U.S. Treasury and is currently an advisory committee member of the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the Department of Commerce. She frequently comments on national media and testifies to Congress on U.S. housing policy.