Zhu Xiao Di is a graduate of MIT with a master's degree in City Planning (1991).

Between 1992 and 1997, he worked at the Center for Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He also worked for Arthur Andersen & Co. as a management consultant between 1995 and 1996. He has been at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University since 1997.

Zhu Xiao Di is a contributor to The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income (Oxford University Press, 2006), to Land Policies and Their Outcomes (published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2007), and to Housing: Socioeconomic, Availability, and Development Issues (Nova Science Publishers, 2009). His publications in academic journals include: “Does Second-Home Ownership Affect Primary Housing Demand?” Housing Studies, 2009, Vol. 24, No.3, “Do Homeowners Achieve More Household Wealth in the Long Run?” Journal of Housing Economics, 2007, Vol. 16, “Do Homeowners Have Higher Future Household Income?” Housing Studies, 2007, Vol. 22, No.4, “The Importance of Wealth and Income in the Transition to Homeownership,” Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, 2007, Vol. 9, Number 2, “Emerging Cohort Trends in Housing Debt and Home Equity,” Housing Policy Debate, 2006, Vol. 17, Issue 3, “Effects of Housing Push Factors and Rent Expectations on Household Formation of Young Adults,” The Journal of Real Estate Research, 2006, “Does Housing Wealth Contribute to or Temper the Widening Wealth Gap in America?” Housing Policy Debate, 2005, Vol. 16, Issue 2, and “Public Housing Policy in China, Singapore and the United States” (2004). International Journal for Housing Science, Vol. 28, No.4.

In addition to helping produce The State of the Nation's Housing report annually released at the Joint Center, he has authored or co-authored numerous Joint Center publications. Recent contributions include: "Growing Wealth, Inequality, and Housing in the United States" (2007), "Multiple-Home Ownership and the Income Elasticity of Housing Demand" (2006), "Housing Wealth and Retirement Savings: Enhancing Financial Security for Older Americans" (2005), "The Importance of Wealth and Income in the Transition to Homeownership" (2005), "The Impact of Minority Growth and Minorities’ Rising Household Income on Housing Markets" (2005), "Emerging Cohort Trends in Housing Debt and Home Equity" (2005), "The Impact of New Census Bureau Interim National Population Projections on Projected Household Growth in the United States" (2004), "'Million-Dollar' Homes and Wealth in the United States" (2004), "Housing Wealth and Household Net Wealth in the United States" (2003), "The Importance of Housing to the Accumulation of Household Net Wealth" (2003), "How Local Rent Change and Earning Capacity Affect Natural Household Formation by Young Adults" (2003), "Intergenerational Wealth Transfer and Its Impact on Housing" (2002), "Young American Adults Living in Parental Homes" (2002), "The Role of Housing as a Component of Household Wealth" (2001), "Second Homes: What, How Many, Where, and Who" (2001), "Cohort Insights into the Influence of Education, Race and Family Structure on Homeownership Trends by Age: 1985 to 1995" (2001), "Residential Conversions" (2000), "Housing and Economic Development in Suzhou, China: A New Approach to Deal with the Inseparable Issues," (2000), and "Updating and Extending the Joint Center Household Projections Using New Census Bureau Population Projections" (2000).

In addition to his housing related research publications, he is the author of Thirty Years in a Red House, A Memoir of Childhood and Youth in Communist China, (Foreword by Ross Terrill, University of Massachusetts Press, 1998; Paperback, 1999; Penguin Books, India, 2000) and a contributor to Father: Famous Writers Celebrate the Bond Between Father and Child (Pocket Books, 2000: an anthology including contributions by Annie Proulx, John Updike, Dean Koontz, and Calvin Trillin). He also published a novel, Tales of Judge Dee (iUniverse, Inc., 2006). He is also the author of a collection of essays written in Chinese, Leisure Thoughts on Idle Books, (Guangxi Normal University Press, 2009).