Michael Neal is a senior fellow and practice area lead in the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute. He is also a research director and researcher with the Initiative on Land, Housing and Property Rights at Boston College Law School.
Neal’s research on wealth building broadly focuses on housing and the financial and economic systems that support it, as well as the mechanisms that exclude some communities from homeownership and optimal wealth-building opportunities.
Neal’s research has been published in Cityscape and the Journal of the Center for Policy Analysis and Research. His research findings have appeared before the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the US Treasury Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the US Senate Banking Committee, and the Mayor’s Housing Task Force in Newark, New Jersey. He has also presented his research at the American Economic Association’s Annual Meetings, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Annual Conference, and the Urban Affairs Association Annual Conference.
Neal is a JPMorgan Chase Fellow and a member of the Social Science Advisory Board at the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. He also serves on the Technical Data Advisory Committee at the Black Wealth Data Center and on the HBCU Wealth Building Initiative Advisory Board at the National Urban League. Neal was a past participant in the Race and Stratification Working Group at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
At Urban, Neal is part of the William and Gail Gorham Scholar/Analyst Program and a Gorham Mentor, class of 2025. He is also a Harry Hatry award winner for mentorship, a former Equity Scholar, a past recipient of a President’s Award for Communications Innovation, and a former Fleishman Award winner.
Neal has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Morehouse College and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Pennsylvania. He has also studied economics at St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, and finance in the Graduate School at Princeton University.
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