NAHB’s Economists

Robert Dietz, Ph.D., is Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Economics and Housing Policy for NAHB, where his responsibilities include housing market analysis, economic forecasting and industry surveys, and housing policy research. Dr. Dietz has published academic research on the private and social benefits of homeownership, federal tax expenditure estimation, and other housing and tax issues in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Housing Research, the National Tax Journal and the NBER Working Paper series. He has testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy on housing and economic issues. Prior to joining NAHB in 2005, Robert worked as an economist for the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, specializing in revenue estimation of legislative proposals involving housing, urban development, and other business tax issues. He is a native of Dayton, Ohio and earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the Ohio State University in 2003.

Ashok Chaluvadi is a Senior Economist for the NAHB Economics group responsible for conducting and assisting with surveys, such as those measuring builder sentiment, finance issues and other related housing industry surveys. He also provides information on housing topics and related issues to NAHB members, staff, financial institutions, Wall Street companies and other individuals. He has a M.A. in Economics from Ohio University.

Onnah Dereski is the Manager of Economic Services at NAHB. Her responsibilities include providing data, communications, and administrative support for the Economics Staff as well as NAHB members and associations. Prior to this role, Onnah worked at NAHB in Member Services as a 20 Clubs Facilitator. She received her B.A. in Business from Hope College in Holland, MI, her home state.

Paul Emrath, Ph.D., is Vice President for Survey and Housing Policy Research for NAHB where his responsibilities include conducting statistical and economic research for NAHB and its local affiliates, as well as managing NAHB’s Survey and Housing Policy departments. The Survey Department conducts the monthly survey that generates the widely cited NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, as well as special surveys such as the one used to break down construction costs in a new home. The Housing Policy Research department conducts a broad range of policy-related research such as estimating the economic impact of home building and analyzing proposed government regulations changes for NAHB committees and councils. Since joining NAHB in 1992, Dr. Emrath has developed many of the statistical methods NAHB uses to analyze housing data, produced over 700 local impact of home building studies, and published more than 150 articles on a wide variety of housing related topics—twice winning National Investment Center awards for articles on 55+ housing. Before being promoted to Vice President, he worked for NAHB as Housing Policy Analyst (1992-1994), Director of Survey Analysis (1994-1995), Senior Economist (1995-1999), Regulatory Economist (1999-2001), and Assistant Vice President (2001-2009). Prior to joining NAHB, he taught economic theory and statistics at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for four years. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Jing Fu, Ph.D. is Director of Forecasting and Analysis at NAHB. She monitors developments in the economy to identify trends and issues related to the housing industry. She also assists in forecasting and analyzing the state and metropolitan area housing market, producing research and articles detailing sectors and the geography of the home building industry. Prior to joining NAHB, Jing worked at Thomson Reuters as a data specialist and has extensive knowledge and experience on quantitative research and large data set analysis. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kansas.

Fan-Yu Kuo is an Economist at NAHB, where she conducts economic research related to macroeconomics and forecasting. She also assists in economic and housing data updates. Prior to NAHB, Fan-Yu was a Research Assistant at the Academia Sinica. She holds an M.A. in International Economics and Finance from Johns Hopkins University and another M.A. in International Political Economy from King’s College London.

Eric Lynch, CBE is an Economist in the Survey Research group for NAHB where he is responsible for conducting and assisting with surveys, including multifamily, remodeling, and other related housing topics. In addition, he provides data and information on housing topics related issues to NAHB members, staff, financial institutions, and other stakeholders. Prior to joining NAHB, he worked as a Senior Associate in the Research & Knowledge department at the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), gaining industry knowledge on the built environment and residential market. He has a B.A. in Political Science/Economics & Spanish from Towson University and a M.S. in Applied Economics from the University of Maryland.

Rose Quint is NAHB Assistant Vice President for Survey Research. Ms. Quint holds a B.S. degree in Economics/International Business from Old Dominion University as well as a Master’s degree in Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her responsibilities include planning and conducting industry surveys, specifically in the areas of builder sentiment, remodeling, housing affordability, and AD&C financing issues. Quint is also responsible for special research projects, such as studies on builders’ profitability, consumer preferences, construction costs, and membership census. She joined NAHB in 1999.

Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington is NAHB Assistant Vice President for Forecasting and Analysis. She oversees the activities of the Forecasting & Analysis section of the Economics group which includes developing and maintaining national, regional, long-term, and remodeling expenditures forecasts. Before being promoted to Assistant Vice President, she worked at NAHB as a Senior Economist. Prior to joining NAHB, Danushka worked at J.D. Power as a Senior Economic Analyst in the automotive industry. She holds a M.A. degree in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Natalia Siniavskaia, Ph.D., is NAHB Assistant Vice President for Housing Policy Research.  Natalia’s responsibilities include conducting statistical and economic research on various homebuilding regulation and housing policy topics, including environmental and zoning regulation, housing affordability, and economic impact of home building. While working for NAHB, she developed a model for estimating housing’s contribution to Gross State Product. Natalia contributes regularly to Housing Economics Online, Land Development and other NAHB publications. Among others, she published articles on spending patterns of homebuyers, living arrangements of young adults, real estate taxation, trends in the home building industry and residential construction employment. Before being promoted to Assistant Vice President, she worked at NAHB as a Senior Housing Policy Economist and Economist. Prior to joining NAHB in 2005, Dr. Siniavskaia was Assistant Professor of Economics at the Coggin College of Business at the University of North Florida. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from the Ohio State University.

Jesse Wade, CBE is an economist and Director, Tax and Trade Policy Analysis. Previously, Jesse served as an economist in the NAHB Forecasting and Analysts Department. Prior to NAHB, Jesse worked as a research associate at the Center for the Study of Services. He holds a M.S. in Applied Economics from the University of Maryland and a CBE designation from NABE.

Na Zhao, Ph.D., is a Principal Economist at NAHB. She is responsible for analyzing the local economic impact of home building and analyzing housing and industry data. She also conducts economic research on housing policies and monitors developments in government housing and real estate policies. She holds a M.A. in Agricultural and Applied Economics and a M.S. in Consumer Behavior and Family Economics from University of Wisconsin-Madison. She earned her Ph.D. in Agricultural and Applied Economics in 2015.