The National Association of Home Builders announced that its chief economist David Crowe, will retire on March 18 of this year. Robert D. Dietz, NAHB’s vice president for tax and market analysis, will be his successor.

“Our members have relied on Dr. Crowe for his insightful analysis during a very rocky time in the home building industry,” says NAHB CEO Jerry Howard. “His skill and his clear eye were invaluable as our builders and remodelers did their own strategic planning to make it through the economic downturn. National decision-makers and reporters have always counted on Dr. Crowe to discuss what’s behind the numbers in a way that was both understandable and approachable.”

Crowe has been responsible for NAHB’s forecasts of housing and economic trends, survey research and analysis of the home building industry and consumer preferences, as well as microeconomic analysis of government policies that affect housing.

In this position, Crowe developed and implemented the Leading Market Index, a model which has estimated the net economic impact of new home construction in over 600 markets.

Crowe served as NAHB senior vice president for regulatory and housing policy before being named chief economist in 2008. Before coming to NAHB in 1989, Crowe was deputy director of the division of housing and demographic analysis at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kentucky.

“Even as we offer Dr. Crowe our sincere thanks and best wishes, we are also very grateful that he will remain to assist Rob Dietz as he makes the transition to Chief Economist,” Howard says.

Dietz’s current responsibilities include economic and legal analysis of tax and policy issues, as well as analysis of housing market data. He has testified before Congress and written about homeownership and energy tax incentives, affordable housing policies, business tax issues, tax regulations and government budget analysis.

His academic research has focused on the private and social benefits of homeownership, federal tax expenditure estimation, and other housing and tax issues, and has been published 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 earned a Ph.D. from Ohio State University.

Prior to joining NAHB in 2005, Dietz provided revenue estimation of legislative proposals involving housing, urban development, and other business tax issues as an economist for the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.