William M. Doerner, Ph.D., is the Chief Economist at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a Research Affiliate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Real Estate and Sustainable Urbanization Lab. His expertise spans housing, mortgage finance, property valuation, and real estate markets. He brings more than a dozen years of experience as an economist, practitioner, and executive leader in the public sector.
Throughout his career, Dr. Doerner has built and led high-performing teams that tackle complex policy and market questions. His work has informed senior government officials, regulatory decisions, national public data programs, and congressional inquiries. He has briefed leaders across federal agencies, served as a national spokesperson on housing market indicators, and helped with the legal strategy in a case that prevailed before the U.S. Supreme Court. His responsibilities have included technical review, property valuation, development approval, and oversight of complex institutional matters across government authorities.
This applied experience provides the foundation for his research. He often studies how regulations, macroeconomic conditions, or unexpected shocks affect housing and financial markets at a national scale. To answer these questions, he combines large administrative, mortgage, appraisal, and property datasets with rigorous empirical methods. The resulting research has received professional awards, appeared in leading academic and industry journals, informed public policy, and been featured by major media outlets.
A civil servant at heart, Dr. Doerner has contributed to public policy at the municipal, county, state, and federal levels. From 2016 to 2025, he served as a Commissioner on the Prince George’s County Planning Board, where he helped guide real estate development, long-term growth, housing policy, transportation, and public investment decisions. He previously served on the Hyattsville Planning Committee and has conducted property valuation work for state and county agencies in Florida.
Dr. Doerner holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Economics from Florida State University and a B.S. in Mathematics-Economics and Urban Studies from Furman University. He was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Guatemala and is fluent in Spanish.