AHS: HUD USER Web Site Updates

From: American Housing Survey (AHS) ListServ <ahs@huduser.gov>

The HUD USER web site has a number of updates related to the American Housing Survey:

2011 AHS Page
The 2011 survey is still in the field, of course (69,702 cases checked in!), but we have started a web page for it. You can download the instrument items booklet in English and Spanish. This is a human-readable (more or less) version of the survey instrument. You can see the wording of the questions and responses. You can also download a copy of the instrument software that you can install and run on a Windows-based computer. It won't save any results, but you can step through an interview and follow how the program branches as it gathers information from the respondent. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahs.html

2009 Metropolitan Survey Report
We've done something different with the metropolitan surveys this year. Instead of printing separate reports for each metropolitan area, we've put them all into a single volume. It covers all seven metropolitan areas surveyed in 2009: Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, New Orleans, New York, Northern New Jersey, and Seattle. You can download a PDF version of the volume from the Census Bureau web site at http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/h170-09.pdf , or you can order a paper copy from the HUD USER web store (https://webstore.huduser.gov/catalog/index.php). This will probably be the very last time we print a metropolitan report. When we finish collecting the data for the 29 metropolitan areas in the 2011 survey, the data will be available on American Factfinder.

2009 Replicate Weights Dataset
Because the AHS does not use a simple random sample, variances of AHS-based estimates are difficult to calculate. Standard statistical software, which assume simple random samples, will tend to underestimate variances. For the first time, we have produced a replicate weight dataset for the AHS national survey. These replicate weights can be used to calculate correct variances, using software such as SAS PROC SURVEYMEANS. The dataset is available for download in SAS and ASCII formats from https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahs.html . Be sure to download the documentation file from the same page. If anyone has instructions on how to use these weights with software other than SAS, I would appreciate having a copy for our user-supplied software library.

2009 CINCH Datasets
The Components of Inventory Change (CINCH) program uses the longitudinal features of the AHS to trace the sources and disposition of the housing stock. The CINCH (and Rental Dynamics) reports have been available for some time. Now you can also download datasets containing the special CINCH weights and recodes, so that you can do your own tabulations on changes in the housing stock. There are datasets for the National, Seattle, and New Orleans surveys. You can download these by following the links from https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/cinch.html.

AHS Research Conference
You've seen this last one before, but another reminder:
In Spring 2012, the Office of Policy Development & Research, Department of Housing and Urban Development, will host the 2nd Annual American Housing Survey User Conference. The purpose of the user conference is to highlight recent research results based on American Housing Survey (AHS) data. To inform this conference, we invite scholars to propose research papers that apply the special features of the AHS datasets to issues of current interest.

The deadline for submission has been extended to September 16, 2011. For details about how to submit an abstract.

Dav Vandenbroucke
Senior Economist
U.S. Dept. HUD
david.a.vandenbroucke@hud.gov
202-402-5890

I disclaim any disclaimers.