American Housing Survey
Office of Economic Affairs
Office of Policy Development and Research
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
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Housing Statistics User Group—West
University of California—Berkeley
September 25, 2003
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American Housing Survey
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The impetus for the survey goes back to the social unrest in the
1960’s.
As a result of the urban rioting, two commissions were set up to
study the causes of the problems –
The Douglas Commission on Urban Problems and the President’s
Committee on Urban Housing, aka, Kaiser Committee.
The Kaiser Committee recommended an annual housing survey
in order to be able to assess the seriousness of housing needs
at that time and to track progress of the National Housing
Production goals
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American Housing Survey
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The American Housing Survey consists of two major
components:
The National Survey conducted in odd-numbered
years
The Metropolitan Surveys – 47 Metro Areas
 41 Metropolitan Areas are surveyed every sixth
year in even-numbered years.
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6 Large Metropolitan Areas are surveyed every four
years as part of the National survey
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American Housing Survey
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The American Housing Survey is sponsored by HUD
and conducted by the Census Bureau
Started as the Annual Housing Survey started in 1973
and changed to biennial in 1982
Metros reduced from 60 metro areas every three
years to 45 areas every four years in 1980
Metros switched to every six years after 1998.
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American Housing Survey
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Anaheim-Santa Ana, CA PMSA
Atlanta, GA MSA
Baltimore, MD MSA
Birmingham, AL MSA
Boston, MA-NH CMSA
Buffalo, NY CMSA
Charlotte, NC-SC MSA
Chicago, IL PMSA *
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN PMSA
Cleveland, OH PMSA
Columbus, OH MSA
Dallas, TX PMSA
Denver, CO MSA
Detroit, MI PMSA *
Fort Worth-Arlington, TX PMSA
Hartford, CT MSA
Houston, TX PMSA
Indianapolis, IN MSA
Kansas City, MO-KS MSA
Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA PMSA *
Memphis, TN-AR-MS MSA
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, FL CMSA
Milwaukee, WI PMSA
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI MSA
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New Orleans, LA MSA
New York-Nassau-Suffolk-Orange, NY PMSAs *
Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA-NC
Northern NJ P MSAs *
Oakland, CA PMSA
Oklahoma City, OK MSA
Philadelphia, PA-NJ PMSA *
Phoenix, AZ MSA
Pittsburgh, PA MSA
Portland, OR-WA PMSA
Providence-Pawtucket-Warwick, RI-MA PMSAs
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA PMSA
Rochester, NY MSA
Sacramento, CA PMSA
St. Louis, MO-IL MSA
Salt Lake City, UT MSA
San Antonio, TX MSA
San Diego, CA MSA
San Francisco, CA PMSA
San Jose, CA PMSA
Seattle-Everett, WA PMSA
Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL MSA
Washington, DC-MD-VA MSA
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American Housing Survey
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Sample for National survey consists of about 60,000 housing
units and 55,000 households
National sample was originally drawn from 1980 Census and has
been updated each survey year for new construction
We go back to the same housing unit every two years -longitudindal sample
Metro samples range in size– but target is about 4,200 housing
units per metro area
Samples are Multi-Stage Probability Samples
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American Housing Survey
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National sample first selected from 1980 Census
Metro Samples selected from the 90 Census and 80 Census
Sample Design www.census.gov/hhes/housing/ahs/appb2.html
 Primary Sampling Units --over 878 counties and independent
cities
 Self Representing -- over 100,000 housing units,
included with certainty
 Non-self Representing -- selected PPS
 Housing Units - 1980 Census (1-in-2,148) Stratified using 6 variable for
address segments and 12 variables for area segments
 New Construction -- sampled from permits
 Coverage improvement
 Conversions
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American Housing Survey
Data Collection Modes
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Paper and Pencil Questionnaire
1997 Conversion to Computer Assisted Personal Interview –
CAPI
In-person interview for
 New housing units
 New households
 Difficult to contact households
Phone Interviews for others
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American Housing Survey
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Physical Characteristics of Structure
Physical Characteristics of the Housing Unit
Selected Amenities
Financial Characteristics -- Rent, PITI, utilities, mortgage characteristics
Characteristics of Occupants
Housing modifications and additions
Equipment -- refrigerator, dishwasher, AC, etc.
Recent Movers
Problems
Neighborhood Characteristics
Remodeling and Home Repairs
Journey to work
Supplement are used from time to time -- Lead-based paint ,Second homes
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American Housing Survey
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Physical Characteristics of Structure
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Type of structure (SF/D, SF/A, MF,
Manufactured,
Units in structure
Year structure built
Location (Region, Metro/NonMetro, Urbanized Area, size of
place…)
Stories in structure
Vacancy status, year-round use, …
Condition of common areas in MF -- halls, stairways,
elevator, lighting
Exterior building conditions
Foundations and basements
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American Housing Survey
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Physical Characteristics of the Housing Unit
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Number of rooms
Number of bedrooms
Number of bathrooms
Square footage
Lot size
Heating equipment and fuel (main and secondary)
Plumbing -- complete or lacking
Fuel usage -- cooking, water heating, central air
conditioning, clothes dryer,
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American Housing Survey
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Selected Amenities
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Porches, decks, patios
Fireplaces
Garage or parking
Dining rooms
Extra living rooms
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American Housing Survey
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Financial Characteristics
 Monthly housing costs
 Mortgage balances
 Interest rates
 Rent
 Real estate taxes
 Condo and co-op fees
 Other housing costs -- land rent, association fees, trailer
park fees,
 Home value and purchase price
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American Housing Survey
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Characteristics of Occupants
 Number
 Race and ethnicity
 Citizenship and Nativity
 Tenure
 Number of persons, children, and elderly
 Persons/room
 Ages of persons
 Household composition and family relationships
 Educational levels
 Year moved in
 Income levels and sources
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American Housing Survey
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Equipment
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Kitchen sink
Refrigerator
Stove -- burners and/or ovens
Dishwasher
clothes washer and dryer
Garbage disposal
Air conditioning -- central or number of room units
Microwave ovens since 1997
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American Housing Survey
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Recent Movers
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Number
Location of previous unit
Previous tenure
previous structure type
change in housing costs
Reason for moving
Choice of present neighborhood
Choice of present home
Search method
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American Housing Survey
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Problems
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Water supply stoppages and Water leakages
Flush toilet breakdowns
Sewage disposal breakdowns
Heating breakdowns
Electric fuses and circuit breakers
Deficiencies--rats, holes in floors and walls, electrical wiring
problems
Overall opinion of unit
Selected Physical Problems --plumbing, heating, upkeep,
electric and hallways.
 Severe
 Moderate
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American Housing Survey
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Neighborhood Characteristics
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Overall opinion
Problems -- crime, noise, traffic, litter or housing
deterioration, poor public services, undesirable commercial,
institutional and industrial facilities.
Description of surrounding area
Age of surrounding buildings
Signs of vandalism
Bars on windows
Conditions of streets
Trash, litter and junk on streets and properties.
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American Housing Survey
Remodeling and Home Repairs -
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Disaster Related Repairs (1)
Finishing Rooms (4)
Adding Rooms (4)
Adding or Replacing Outside Structures (5)
Bathroom Remodeling (1)
Kitchen Remodeling (1)
Remodeling Other Rooms (3)
Adding or Replacing Structural Items (11)
Adding or Replacing Equipment (7)
Other Home Remodeling (1)
Lot or Yard additions or Replacements (6)
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American Housing Survey
Journey to Work and Telecommuting
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Offices at home
Employment Last Week
Fixed Job Site and Location
Did you work at home -- hours, days
Principal means
 Drive alone
 Carpool and size
 Public Transportation
Number of Cars and Trucks
Commuting Times, Distances and Lengths
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American Housing Survey
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Accessing The AHS
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Downloading Microdata from HUDUSER
Downloading Tabulations from Census
CD-ROM
Printed Reports
Mailing List
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American Housing Survey
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Downloading Microdata from HUDUSER
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http://www.huduser.org/datasets/ahs.html
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1995-1996: ASCII only
1997 forward: SAS or ASCII
Codebooks & other programming aids
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American Housing Survey
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Downloading Tabulations from Census
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http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/ahs.html
All Reports in PDF files
1997 forward national survey tables in HTML
Survey documentation
Microdata also available through FERRETT
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American Housing Survey
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CD-ROM
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Available from HUD USER or Census Bureau
All microdata files, 1973 forward
All reports, 1973 forward (PDF, some scanned)
2001+ CDs have table generation software
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American Housing Survey
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Printed Reports
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Available from HUD USER or Census Bureau
Limited availability for older years.
Available in Federal Depository Libraries
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American Housing Survey
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Mailing list (listserve )
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http://www.huduser.org/emaillists/ahslist.html
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Announcements of new products
Questions from users about using the survey
Questions from HUD about possible changes in the
survey
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American Housing Survey
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Available Files and Formats
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SAS – 1997 Forward
ASCII – 1997 Forward
ASCII – 1973 to 1996
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American Housing Survey
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SAS (1997 forward)
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SAS transport format (Use PROC COPY to read)
Modules (files) as of 2001 national survey
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NewHouse: Household / Housing Unit (housing unit level)
Person: Personal characteristics (person level)
Mortg: Mortgages & home equity loans (household level)
HomImp: Alterations & repairs (project level)
RMov: Recent mover (mover group level)
Ratiov: Verification of cost to income ratio (household level)
JTW: Journey to work (person level)
Owner: Live-in owners or managers (housing unit level)
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American Housing Survey
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ASCII – 1997 Forward
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Same multifile structure as the SAS version
Comma-delimited
First record is variable names
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American Housing Survey
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ASCII – 1973 to 1996
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One big file (250 MB)
Fixed-column
Get record layout from codebook
User-written programs for conversion to SAS
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American Housing Survey
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Linking files Within surveys (relational)
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Main variable to match records is CONTROL
Metro surveys use CONTROL and SMSA
One-to-many relationships among the files
File flattener program for SAS users.
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American Housing Survey
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Linking files Between surveys
(longitudinal)
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Match on CONTROL (plus SMSA for metro surveys)
Things to watch out for
 Changes in household
 Attrition
 Panel drops (metro surveys)
 Weighting issues
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American Housing Survey
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Codebooks
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1997 forward -- New codebook
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1973-1995 --Volume I codebook
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Paper version
Downloadable scanned version (HUD USER)
1995-1996 -- Volume II codebook
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Downloadable as PDF
Searchable, copy & paste, etc.
Current version is 1.50
Regular upgrades
Small supplement covering 1995-1996
Downloadable as MS-Word file (HUD USER)
ASCII data dictionary
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American Housing Survey
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Useful Programs and Information
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File flattener for SAS users
User-written programs
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Mostly ASCII-to-SAS conversions for older surveys
A few Stata related programs
SAS format library for value labels
Descriptive statistics
Census Bureau table specifications
Survey instrument script (Q-code)
FAQ
Metro survey geography
Technical reports
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American Housing Survey
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Related datasets
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Income limits file for AHS national surveys
 HUD income thresholds
 HUD adjusted median family income
 Fair market rents
 Poverty income
 One record for each unit in AHS
Property Owners and Managers Survey (POMS)
 “Landlord” survey based on 1993 AHS
 Microdata available from HUD
 Tabulations available from Census
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American Housing Survey
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Allocation (Imputation)
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Replacing missing values with values from similar units
Hot-decking from allocation matrices
Allocation flag variables in dataset (start with “J”)
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American Housing Survey
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Topcoding
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Protecting confidentiality of extreme cases
Bottom coding used for income
Details in codebook
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