Assistant or Associate Research Professor, Franklin L. Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management

CHRIS Housing Economist

The Center for Housing Research and Innovative Solutions (CHRIS) at the University of Denver is the first center of its kind in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West — an interdisciplinary hub for housing research, data, policy evaluation, and education. Bringing together expertise in real estate, land use law, public policy, and social sciences, CHRIS produces rigorous, nonpartisan research spanning the full housing continuum — from deeply affordable to market-rate, rental to home ownership — with a focus on production and preservation, affordability, and resilience.

CHRIS applies innovative research methods, policy tools, and technologies, including in emerging areas like industrialized construction, to expand what's possible for how housing is built, financed, accessed, and preserved. Through policy evaluation, comparative research, and market analytics, CHRIS translates evidence into practical, forward-looking solutions for policymakers, practitioners, and communities, while building regional data infrastructure that strengthens housing decision-making across Colorado and the region.

CHRIS also advances the next generation of housing leaders through research training, applied learning opportunities, and executive education for practitioners and policymakers.

The Housing Economist will hold a faculty research appointment (non-tenure track) in the Franklin L. Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management and will serve as CHRIS's lead economist and methodologist. The Housing Economist will report directly to the Executive Director of CHRIS, with a dotted-line relationship to the Director of the Burns School to support their faculty appointment and integration into the Burns School community.

Working closely with the CHRIS Executive Director and in partnership with faculty and researchers across Burns and the broader University, the Housing Economist will lead and publish peer-reviewed and applied policy research focused on housing economics and real estate markets and provide methodological leadership across CHRIS's research portfolio. The Housing Economist will also collaborate closely with leaders and scholars from other units on campus, as well as researchers from other institutions, to identify new research opportunities, develop research design and conceptual frameworks for understanding the links between policies and housing supply, and produce evidence-driven research that can help to inform housing policy debates in Colorado and at the federal level.

The Housing Economist will also be responsible for working closely with researchers from Terner Labs to develop and manage Housing Policy Simulators for Colorado and to use resulting models to conduct policy-relevant research and analyze the application of research to policy outcomes. The Housing Economist will be expected to represent DU at various forums, conferences, symposiums and events to present and share the research and white papers produced.

The Housing Economist will be expected to undertake rigorous, timely, and practical research projects that focus in the areas of housing economics, real estate finance, and the effect of housing and land use policies and regulations on housing markets and affordability.

Essential Functions:

• Research:
  The Housing Economist will serve as CHRIS's lead economist and methodologist — publishing peer-reviewed and applied policy research in housing economics and real estate markets, developing and applying Terner Labs' Housing Policy Simulator for Colorado communities, serving as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on sponsored grants and research projects, and advising CHRIS-affiliated researchers and staff on research design, econometrics, and causal inference methods.
  
  The Housing Economist will supervise graduate research assistants and collaborate with faculty across departments and schools on research papers targeted at top tier housing, real estate, and economics journals.
• Collaboration:
  
  The Housing Economist will be expected to partner with researchers at the University of Denver and other institutions to support interdisciplinary housing research projects,…