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Residential Finance Survey
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How RFS Data are Collected
Survey Design and Techniques | Questionnaires | Timing | Enumeration
Survey Design and Techniques - The 2001 Residential Finance Survey was designed to provide data about the financing of nonfarm, privately owned, residential properties.
The program was conducted by mailing questionnaires to a sample of property owners and to lenders who held mortgages on the sample properties. An option was also provided to lenders who wanted to respond electronically. Telephone and personal visit followup was done for nonresponse cases.
A sample of about 50,000 addresses was drawn from the address file for Census 2000. These addresses were limited to counties and independent cities in the 394 sampling areas used for the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey National Sample.
Questionnaires - Five questionnaires were used to collect data for the 2001 residential Finance Survey.
- The pre-survey contact with lenders" letter, D-2903(L), was mailed to lenders one year before the actual survey with a threefold purpose: (1) to give lenders advance notice of the Residential Finance Survey so that they could prepare for receiving the survey one year later; (2) to ask the lenders to identify an appropriate respondent to the survey lender questionnaire; and (3) to ask the lenders whether they would prefer paper or electronic reporting of their mortgage data. Approximately 11,000 "pre-survey contact with lenders" letters were mailed.
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- The "owner seeker" letter, D-2905(L), was mailed to units at basic street addresses having two or more housing units in order to identify the name and address of the owner or the owner's agent, and to determine if the property was a homeowner property or rental property. A homeowner property was defined as one having fewer than 5 units where the owner of the property lived in one of the units. A rental property was one with five or more units or a property of fewer than five units with none that were owner occupied. Condominium apartments were considered homeowner properties if the owner lived in the unit and rental properties if the owner did not live in the unit. If the property was determined to be a homeowner property, a homeowner questionnaire was mailed to the owner. If it was a rental property, a rental property questionnaire was mailed to the property owner or the owner's agent. To minimize the reporting burden on the public and survey costs, the mailing of "owner seeker" letters was limited to a maximum of seven apartments at any one multiunit address. Approximately 75,000 "owner seeker" letters were mailed. About another 25,000 "owner seeker" letters were sent to census regional offices for field interviews, primarily for larger properties.
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- The homeowner questionnaire, D-2900, was initially mailed to all addresses with only one unit, and all mobile homes. In addition, properties identified on the "owner seeker" letter as having fewer than 5 units, one of which was owner occupied, were sent homeowner questionnaires. This questionnaire provided for the reporting of characteristics of the property and the property owner(s). It also requested the name and address of the owner if he/she did not live on the property.
If the property was mortgaged, the respondent was asked to report the person or institution to whom the mortgage payments were made. A letter accompanying the questionnaire at mailout informed the respondent that by providing the lender's name and address he/she was granting permission for the Census Bureau to contact that lender. About 35,000 homeowner questionnaires were mailed.
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- The rental and vacant property questionnaire, D-2901, was mailed to owners or agents of properties with five or more housing units or those with fewer than five units when none were owner-occupied as indicated by responses on the "owner seeker" letter and home-owner questionnaire. As with the homeowner questionnaire, if the property was mortgaged, the respondents were asked to provide information about the recipients of their mortgage payments with the understanding that the lender would then be contacted by the Census Bureau. Approximately 20,000 rental and vacant property questionnaires were mailed.
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- The lender questionnaire, D-2902, was mailed to financial institutions, government agencies, firms or individuals to whom mortgage payments made, as indicated on the homeowner and rental and vacant property questionnaires. It provided for the reporting of information about the mortgage. The form was designed to collect data on both first and junior mortgages, including home equity lines of credit, reverse mortgages, and installment loans on mobile homes. About 15,000 lender questionnaires were mailed. Numerous lenders across the country wanted the option to respond electronically with mortgage data. Electronic reporting was provided for approximately 5,000 mortgages.
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Timing - The "pre-survey contact with lenders" letters were mailed in mid-June, 2000. The "owner seeker" letters were mailed to addresses or sent to the regional offices for field interviewing in early April, 2001. The homeowner questionnaires were mailed in early April, 2001, with a followup mailing mid-June. The rental and vacant property questionnaires were mailed in late May, 2001, with a followup mailing in late June. The lender questionnaires were mailed in August and September, 2001, to those lenders wishing to receive paper questionnaires. Those lenders that wished to respond electronically to data files made available by the Census Bureau were sent information in three phases: in mid-August and late September, 2001, and in late March, 2002.
Enumeration - The 2001 Residential Finance Survey was essentially a centralized mail-out/mail-back operation conducted by the National Processing Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The mail enumeration of property owners occurred mainly in the months of April 2001 through March 2002, while the lenders were polled in August 2001 through March 2002.
Field interviewing for property owners was limited to cases in which the owner was either not identified or failed to respond to the original mailed questionnaire and followup letters. Followup enumeration was conducted by field representatives from the 12 census regional offices.
Field representatives were trained for the followup enumeration of property owners through an extensive home study course and a 1-day classroom training session conducted by supervisory personnel at each of the 12 census regional offices.
Followup interviews of lenders (banks, savings and loans, insurance companies, etc.) were made by the National Processing Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana. If the lenders had not received the initial mailout of questionnaires, new documents were mailed to them. Those lenders who indicated they would respond electronically but had not done so were contacted by staff at the Census Bureau's headquarters office in the Washington, DC area.
Contact the Demographic Call Center Staff at 301-763-2422 or 1-866-758-1060 (toll free) or visit
ask.census.gov for further information on Residential Finance Survey.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division
Last Revised: May 04, 2005
