Housing Data Produced by the U.S. Census Bureau

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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 American Housing Survey Covers

• The Nations 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
Household education, income, demographics
Neighborhood quality/problems
Costs and Finance
Structure and Equipment
The homes people left, and why they moved
Residential alterations and home repairs
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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 EquipmentStructure Type
The single-family home is the most common (61.6)
Multi-family homes are less common - only
24 of units were in multi-unit
buildings - most in buildings with less
than 10 units
Manufactured (mobile) homes account for 7 of
our housing
NOTE Units (or households) not Buildings
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Appliances
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Housing deficiencies
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A second bath has become much more commonhouses
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

rent/mortgage, taxes, utilities, fuels, home
insurance
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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
Owners
Renters
African Americans
Hispanics
The elderly
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Recent research using AHS data

• Housing Rehabilitation and American Cities
• Estimates of rehabilitation needs (Millennial
  Housing Commission Report)
• Worst Case Needs (HUD)
• High rent burdens
• Substandard housing
• Housing Profile Out Of Order (Census)
• Census report on equipment breakdowns, leaks,
  etc.
• The Value of Owner Occupation in Neighborhoods
• Spillover effects of homeownership on property
  values of neighbors (Journal of Housing Research)

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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 Bureaus Ferret System
• HUDs 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