Marsha J. Courchane, Vice President & Practice Leader, heads the Financial Economics Practice for Charles River Associates (CRA). Dr. Courchane specializes in financial institution analyses for regulatory reviews and litigation. Dr. Courchane is a leading expert in the areas of mortgage and consumer lending and has worked with many of the largest lenders and secondary market participants in the United States. Her client work and research focus on fair lending, affordable lending, credit scoring and the origination, pricing, and securitization of mortgages. She has served as an expert in mortgage related and credit scoring litigation matters. Dr. Courchane held a number of academic and professional positions prior to her consulting experience. Previously she served as Director of Financial Strategy and Research in the housing economics and financial research department at Freddie Mac. Prior to that, she was Senior Financial Economist at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, focusing on fair lending and credit scoring matters for large national banks.
Dr. Courchane has published in several journals including the Journal of Real Estate Research, Journal of Economics and Business, Housing Policy Debate, Applied Economics, Journal of Housing Research, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics and Property Management. She serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Housing Research, the Journal of Real Estate Research, the Journal of Real Estate Literature and for the International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis and referees for several journals. Dr. Courchane is a Fellow of the Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics. She chaired the Women’s Real Estate Network of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association from 2005 – 2008. She serves as the Executive Vice President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association from 2008 – 2013 and is on the Board of Directors of the American Real Estate Society from 2008 – 2015.