Housing Data Produced by the
U.S. Census Bureau

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Key Considerations When Thinking about Using Data

• Geographic detail

• Characteristic detail

• Frequency of data collection

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Sources of Housing Data

• Demographic Directorate:

  • American Housing Survey

  • Housing Vacancy Survey (Current Population Survey)

  • Survey of Market Absorption (SOMA)

  • New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey

  • Residential Finance Survey (RFS)

  • Property Owners and Managers Survey (POMS)

• Decennial Directorate:

  • Decennial Censuses

  • American Community Survey

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Sources of Housing Data (cont)

• Economic Directorate:

  • New Residential Construction (building permits, housing starts, and housing completions)

  • New Residential Sales (new one-family houses)

  • Construction Price Indexes(new one-family houses sold and under construction)

  • Characteristics of New Housing (single-family and multi-family units started and completed)

  • Construction Spending (value put in place)

  • Residential Improvements

  • Manufactured Housing

  • Census of Construction

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• The Nation’s housing

  • Its size and characteristics

  • Its use and occupancy

  • Its condition and neighborhood

  • Its financial characteristics

    • Monthly housing costs

    • The ratio of costs to household income

• And characteristics of the household

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How is the survey conducted?

• We interview in person or by telephone

  • Using laptop computers

• And the same homes are revisited year after year

  • Providing a history of housing in America

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Just some subject areas

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Household Characteristics

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Some Other Household Characteristics

• • Age

  • Children

  • Education

  • Race

  • Hispanic Origin

  • Tenure (own/rent)

  • Nativity/citizenship (immigrant status)

  • Income

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Structure & Equipment:
Structure Type

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Appliances

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Housing deficiencies

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A second bath has become much more common:
houses have been getting bigger

1974 2001

• Less than 1 3.7% 0.6%

• 1 62.9% 39.6%

• 1 1/2 12.9% 15.6%

• 2 or more 20.5% 44.2%

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Some Other Structure & Equipment Measures

• • Year structure built

  • Elevator

  • Heating Fuel

  • Kitchen Appliances

  • Square footage of unit

  • Rooms: number and type

• • Persons per room (crowding).

Combines household and structure.

Requires survey.

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Housing Costs*

• The 2001 median monthly housing cost was $658

  • For new construction, it was $956

  • In units with severe physical problems, $573

• About 1 household in 4 spent over $1000 a month on housing costs

• But a little less than 1 household in 5 spent less than $300

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Mortgages

• • 60.0% of Owners had a mortgage (regular or lump-sum home equity loan).

HE lump-sum is usually a second mortgage.

• • 35.5% owned free and clear.

  • 2.2% home equity line of credit only.

Revolving credit.

• • 2.2% not reported

Usually data are allocated (imputed). Not here.

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Other Costs and Finance

• • Mortgage payment

  • Property taxes

  • Purchase price

  • Home Value (self-reported)

  • Subsidized housing (e.g., public housing project).

  • Reason refinanced mortgage

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Neighborhood Quality and Problems

• • 68.7 % of households rate their neighborhood 8 or better, out of 10.

  • 6.7% live in gated communities (walls or fences).

• • Whether neighborhood has crime, odors, noise, litter, and whether it is bothersome.

  • Satisfaction with public transportation, shopping, schools, police.

  • Neighborhood buildings abandoned or with bars on windows.

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Examples of Other Measures

• • Recent movers

    • Reason for Moving

    • Tenure of previous residence

  • Residential alterations and home repairs

    • Added or replaced roof, siding, doors.

    • Additions: inside bathrooms, kitchens.

    • Remodeling: bathroom and kitchen.

  • Journey to Work (commuting)

    • Mode, distance, time.

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Commuting: driving alone has become more common

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AHS asks about vehicle ownership

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But this barely opens the door
to the wealth
of information in the AHS

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The reports have separate tables for:

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Recent research using AHS data

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The survey is divided into 2 parts:

• National Sample

  • Odd-numbered years

  • Throughout the country

  • (Includes the 6 largest cities -- every other time)

  • Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Northern New Jersey, Philadelphia

  • About 50,000 homes

• 41 Metro Areas

  • Even-numbered years

  • on a rotating basis

  • about 13 each year

  • About 3,000 homes per metro

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Geography for National data products

• United States

  • Regions

  • Metropolitan statistical areas

    • Approx. 100 (microdata)

    • All Metros grouped (published)

    • Central cities

    • Suburbs

  • Rural areas

  • Places grouped by size

  • Not: Individual States

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Geography for Metropolitan data products

• For each of the 47 cities

  • 3 sub-areas

    • Usually a central city

    • 2 largest counties

  • Zones (microdata)

    • (Census tract groups of 100,000 population)

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Related Data

• CINCH

  • Components of inventory Change

  • Construction, Demolitions, Conversions

  • Based on AHS

  • Latest is 1980-1993 (Census)

1985-2001 (HUD)

• Property Owners and Managers Survey (POMS) 1995

  • Survey of landlords of AHS rental units

  • Finances, management practices, maintenance

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Related Data

• New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey

  • Very similar to AHS but more detailed info on rent regulation status

  • Large Sample (16,000) every 3 years

  • More geographic detail (55 sub-boro areas)

  • Reports: Census, NYC, NYU

    • Census. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/nychvs.html

    • The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/hpd/html/for-researchers/housing-vacancy-surveys.html

    • The New York University Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy produces, "The State of NYC's Housing and Neighborhoods." http://www.law.nyu.edu/realestatecenter/SOC_intro.htm

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Other Census Housing Data

• • Residential Finance Survey

    • Survey of households and their mortgage lenders

    • Every ten years after Census – 2001 PUF released

  • Construction Statistics

    • Business cycle measurement and local forecasting

    • National data on new construction (e.g., permits, starts, prices)

    • Some data down to county level

    • Characteristics of new construction

    • Census of construction (industry data)

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HUD and the Census Bureau

Have given a high priority to making the AHS data accessible.

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Data Products

• Published books

  • • U.S. Census Bureau - Customer Service

    • HUD User (www.huduser.org)

    • Superintendent of Documents

• Microdata

  • Census Bureau’s Ferret System

  • HUD’s website in downloadable format

  • CD Rom -

    • Census Bureau - Customer Service

    • HUD User

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At the HUD website you will find:

www.huduser.org

• 1995 - 2003 AHS files for downloading

  • (SAS and ASCII versions)

• Summary statistics for 1997 - 2003

• A codebook for the survey

• Links to the Census Bureau website

• Information for ordering reports

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The Census Bureau website provides

• PDF versions of AHS reports since 1973

• Access to the microdata for extracts

• FERRET system access for

  • Creating user-specified tables

• Descriptions of the surveys

  • Historical changes

  • Definitions of concepts and variables

  • Sample design, sizes, and weights

• Census AHS Branch: 301-763-3235