John C. Weicher

John C. Weicher was senior fellow and director of the Center for Housing and Financial Markets at Hudson Institute.

From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Weicher served as assistant secretary for housing and federal housing commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, with responsibility for 3,400 staff and half a trillion dollars of Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance. His major initiatives included regulatory reform of the real estate settlement process, mission regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and establishing a risk-based premium structure for FHA's multifamily mortgage insurance. He previously served as assistant secretary for policy development and research at HUD from 1989 to 1993, and as chief economist at both HUD (1975-77) and the Office of Management and Budget (1987-89).

Dr. Weicher has managed research staff and projects in both government agencies and policy research institutes, including the Urban Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, and previously at the Hudson Institute (1993-2001). From 2007 to 2008 he chaired the Committee to Evaluate the Research Plan of the Department of Housing and Urban Development of the National Research Council; he has also been a member of the Millennium Housing Commission, the Census Advisory Committee on Population Statistics, and the Committee on Urban Policy of the National Research Council. He was president of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association in 1982, and received the Association's George Bloom Award for Career Achievement in 1993.

Dr. Weicher has been appointed to the Advisory Board of Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, published by HUD.

Dr. Weicher is the author or editor of fourteen books, and the author of numerous popular and scholarly articles. His latest book is Housing Policy At A Crossroads: The Why, How, And Who Of Assistance Programs and previously, he was chief author of Rebuilding the Research Capacity at HUD, the report of the National Research Council Committee. His recent writings on policy issues have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times, and other publications. He has testified before congressional committees on more than 40 occasions.

He holds an AB in English from the University of Michigan and a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago, and was assistant and associate professor of economics at The Ohio State University.