October 21, 2005

Residential Finance Survey Focuses on Properties, Not Housing Units

The Census Bureau has conducted the Residential Finance Survey (RFS) every 10 years since 1951 and yet many analysts are unaware of it. For a sample of properties (68,000 addresses in 2001), the Census Bureau collects data on housing financial arrangements from three sources - homeowners, owners of rental properties, and lenders. In 2001, for example, there were 83.5 million properties. Almost 50.6 million were mortgaged. Almost 37.6 million had a fixed-rate, level payment mortgage; 2.3 million had a short-term mortgage with a balloon payment; 11,000 had a reverse mortgage; and 6.5 million had an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM).

The RFS has data on owner characteristics, property characteristics, and financing characteristics. The last includes interest rate, type of mortgage, term of mortgage, holder of mortgage, caps on interest rate over life of the ARM, monthly payment, items included in first mortgage, etc. The results of the RFS are available online in a PDF report or in microdata files available for download. On the Census Bureau homepage, click on "Housing" and then on "Residential Finance Survey."

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