Introducing George R. Carter III, Housing and Demographic Analysis Division Director, and Gathering Input for the 2023 AHS

Introducing George R. Carter III, Housing and Demographic Analysis Division Director, and Gathering Input for the 2023 AHS

George R. Carter III, Director of PD&R’s Housing and Demographic Analysis Division.

Hello! For those who don’t know me, I am the new Director of the Housing and Demographic Analysis Division (HDAD) in the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R). HDAD consists of four analysts who oversee the surveys HUD sponsors that are collected by the U.S. Census Bureau (Census), including the American Housing Survey (AHS), the Survey of Construction (SOC), the Survey of Market Absorption of New Multifamily Units (SOMA), the Manufactured Housing Survey (MHS), and the Rental Housing Finance Survey (RHFS). The division is the primary office involved in analyzing AHS data to support departmental policymaking. HDAD also produces the quarterly U.S. Housing Market Conditions, monthly Housing Market Indicators reports, short- and long-term studies as departmental needs require, and data files on subsidized households.

Before arriving at PD&R, I worked at Census for 7 years, first as a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Survey Methods Research and then as a survey statistician in the AHS branch. I joined HDAD as a social science analyst in March 2013 and became a senior survey statistician in 2018. I am an urban sociologist and survey methodologist by training and know HUD’s housing surveys from the ground up. I am humbled and grateful for the opportunity to lead my intelligent, capable staff in overseeing data collections that are vital to HUD’s evidence-based policymaking.

Gathering Input for the 2023 AHS

While Census is in the field collecting responses to the 2021 AHS, HUD and Census are starting to generate ideas for the sample and content of the 2023 AHS. The process involves gathering input from HUD staff, AHS data users, and external stakeholders. The goal of collecting this input is to ensure that AHS data are as useful as possible for HUD policymakers, researchers, industry leaders, and the public. We are specifically soliciting input on two key features of the AHS: oversamples and topical modules.

In keeping with the 2015 AHS redesign, we are planning to continue using our integrated national sample for 2023, which includes a representative national sample, representative samples from the top 15 metropolitan areas, and a HUD-assisted oversample. We also intend to revisit the housing units in the 10 additional metropolitan areas we interviewed in 2019. If you would like HUD to consider an oversample in another metropolitan area, state, or geographic area, please send your suggestions to me at ahs2023planning@huduser.gov. Note that the current AHS sample design permits the creation of state-level estimates for California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas every 2 years and Colorado, Maryland, Ohio, and Virginia once every 4 years.

To ensure that AHS data continue to be relevant, we are also gathering input on ideas for topical modules for 2023. HUD has included rotating topical modules in every survey since 2011. The report “Topical Module History Report: 2009–2019” contains information on previous topical modules and research using topic module data. I invite you to look at the report and send your ideas on reinstating topical modules used in previous surveys — or entirely new ideas for 2023 — to me at ahs2023planning@huduser.gov. If you are recommending new topical modules, you are agreeing to “sponsor” the topic by devoting your time and expertise to work with me, my staff, and Census to develop questions. The goal of this process is the development of valid and reliable measures that inform our understanding of housing markets and housing policy. I look forward to leading the development, collection, and analysis of HUD’s housing surveys into the future, balancing the need to keep the surveys timely and relevant with the need to reduce respondent burden and manage survey costs.