Susan M Wachter

Biographic Data

ID783647
NAMESusan M Wachter
GIVEN NAMESSusan M
FAMILY NAMEWachter
SIGNATUREWACHTER S M
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Pennsylvania
ORCID0000-0002-4462-1728
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS24
TOTAL CITATIONS71
AUTHOR COUNT22
EDITOR COUNT2
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1977
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX5

  • Thinking Outside the Credit Box

    Open AccessStephanie Moulton, Vanessa Gail Perry et al.ARTICLEHousing Policy Debate2025

    What would it take to increase homeownership rates and close the racial homeownership gap in the U.S.? In this paper, a group of interdisciplinary housing policy scholars provide their collective insights on this question. They highlight the limitations of current approaches and describe potential product and institutional innovations to the housing finance system that may help close the racial homeownership gap

  • Resolving the Contested Future of the GSEs

    Open AccessEdward Golding, Susan M Wachter et al.ARTICLEHousing Policy Debate2025

    Seventeen years after entering conservatorship, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain central to the future of U.S. housing finance. This paper evaluates the feasibility of their exit from conservatorship without Congressional action, assessing repayment of the federal bailout, capital adequacy under current regulatory frameworks, and the durability of structural reforms. It puts forth a utility model that preserves liquidity, affordability, and miss…

  • The Mortgage Market in the Time of Covid

    Laurie S Goodman, Susan M Wachter et al.ARTICLEHousing Policy Debate2021

    Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, collectively known as the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), have been in conservatorship for more than a decade. These organizations continue to dominate the hous

  • The Mortgage Market as a Stimulus Channel in the Covid-19 Crisis

    Edward Golding, Laurie S Goodman et al.ARTICLEHousing Policy Debate2021

    The COVID-19 pandemic mortgage forbearance programs are valuable, providing relief to approximately 2 million homeowners. At the same time, aggressive Federal Reserve intervention has decreased mortgage rates substantially, encouraging refinancing. However, mortgage rates remain elevated, as the industry is capacity constrained, and mortgage underwriting has become more restrictive, limiting the potential gains to borrowers from the Fed’s actions…

  • Government-Sponsored Enterprises

    Richard L Cooperstein, Richard Cooperstein et al.ARTICLEHousing Policy Debate2021

    This article offers a vision of the future of the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) as mortgage utilities. The designation of the GSEs as systemically important mortgage market utilities preserves recent reforms that enable the entities to carry out their congressionally chartered mission while protecting taxpayers. We show that mortgage utilities can generate the stable profits necessary to attract private investors. If the GSEs are simply…

  • The Past, Present, and Future of the Community Reinvestment Act

    Susan M Wachter, SUSAN WACHTER et al.ARTICLEHousing Policy Debate2020

    The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), enacted in 1977 and the subject of this special issue of Housing Policy Debate, was part of a trilogy of laws in the late 1970s including the Equal Credit Oppo

  • Jens Lunde and Christine Whitehead

    Open AccessSusan M WachterARTICLEJournal of Housing and the Built…2017

  • Shared Prosperity in America's Communities

    Susan M Wachter, Lei DingBOOKShared Prosperity in America's…2016

    Shared Prosperity in America's Communities examines the degree to which place matters in the geography of economic opportunity; offers strategies to address the challenges of place-based inequality; and shows how communities across the nation are implementing change and building a future of shared prosperity.

  • Real estate prices in Beijing, 1644 to 1840

    Open AccessDaniel M G Raff, Daniel Raff et al.ARTICLEExplorations in Economic History2013Cited by: 3References: 6

  • Explaining the Housing Bubble

    Open AccessAdam J Levitin, Susan M WachterARTICLESSRN Electronic Journal2012References: 1

    There is little consensus as to the cause of the housing bubble that precipitated the financial crisis of 2008. Numerous explanations exist: misguided monetary policy; a global savings surplus; government policies encouraging affordable homeownership; irrational consumer expectations of rising housing prices; inelastic housing supply. None of these explanations, however, is capable of fully explaining the housing bubble

  • Neighborhood and Life Chances

    Harriet Newburger, Harriet B Newburger et al.BOOKNeighborhood and Life Chances2011

    Neighborhood and Life Chances brings together researchers from a range of disciplines to demonstrate that place matters in education, physical health, crime, violence, housing, family income, mental health, and discrimination—issues that determine the quality of life among low-income residents of urban areas

  • The Shape of the New American City

    Open AccessEugénie L Birch, Susan M WachterARTICLEThe Annals of the American…2009

  • Urban Growth and Housing Affordability

    Open AccessRichard P Voith, Richard Voith et al.ARTICLEThe Annals of the American…2009Cited by: 4References: 4

    This article addresses the potential conflict between urban growth and housing affordability. The pervasive urban decline of the past, in which two-thirds of America’s thirty largest cities as of 1970 declined in population, has been replaced with urban growth. Two-thirds of these same cities have since resumed growing, but affordability challenges arise in many newly growing cities. The authors address the forces, both internal and external, dri…

  • The American Mortgage in Historical and International Context

    Open AccessRichard K Green, Susan M WachterARTICLEThe Journal of Economic…2005Cited by: 24References: 7

    The U.S. mortgage before the 1930s would be nearly unrecognizable today: it featured variable interest rates, high down payments and short maturities. The authors compare the form of U.S. home mortgages today with those in other countries. The U.S. mortgage provides many more options to borrowers than are commonly provided elsewhere: American homebuyers can choose whether to pay a fixed or floating rate of interest; they can lock in their interes…

  • Information Externalities and Home Mortgage Underwriting

    Open AccessDavid C Ling, Susan M WachterARTICLEJournal of Urban Economics1998Cited by: 6References: 10

  • Polarisation, Public Housing and Racial Minorities in US Cities

    Open AccessWilliam H Carter, Michael H Schill et al.ARTICLEUrban Studies1998Cited by: 22References: 23

    Cities in the US have become home to an increasing concentration of poor households, disproportionately composed of racial and ethnic minorities. In the US, poor and minority populations are overrepresented in public housing, mostly located in central cities. Racial and ethnic minorities in American public housing are, for the most part, composed of native-born households whereas in Europe they are more likely to be foreign-born. After a descript…

  • Sociology

    Open AccessSusan M Wachter, SUSAN WACHTERARTICLEThe Annals of the American…1998

  • Scarcity by Design

    Susan M Wachter, Peter D Salins et al.ARTICLEJournal of Policy Analysis and…1994

  • The Effects of Land-Use Constraints on Housing Prices

    Henry Pollakowski, Henry O Pollakowski et al.ARTICLELand Economics1990

  • Subsidizing Shelter

    Open AccessSusan M Wachter, Sandra J Newman et al.ARTICLEJournal of Policy Analysis and…1990Cited by: 6

  • The Impacts of Borrowing Constraints on Homeownership

    Open AccessPeter Linneman, Susan M Wachter et al.ARTICLEReal Estate Economics1989

    This paper utilizes microdata to directly quantify the impact of mortgage underwriting criteria on individual homeownership propensities. To determine whether a family is constrained by these criteria, the optimal home purchase price is estimated. The results indicate that wealth and income constraints both reduce homeownership propensities, with a stronger impact for wealth constraints. Mortgage market innovations of the early 1980s seem to have…

  • Economics

    Open AccessSusan M WachterARTICLEThe Annals of the American…1983

  • Demographic Influences on Economic Stability

    Richard A Easterlin, Michael L Wachter et al.ARTICLEPopulation and Development Review1978Cited by: 6

    Richard A. Easterlin, Michael L. Wachter, Susan M. Wachter, Demographic Influences on Economic Stability: The United States Experience, Population and Development Review, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Mar., 1978), pp. 1-22

  • Latin American Inflation

    Laura Randall, Susan M WachterARTICLEHispanic American Historical Review1977