AHS: First-time owner mistake in National tables

AHS: First-time owner mistake in National tables

There was an error in the way that the AHS table creator on the web selected cases for first-time owners, for the 2015 survey. If you have run any tables using that status, you should run them again, after Thursday, December 15. See the explanation below.

An error was found in the 2015 National tables involving a variable called FIRSTHOME. This variable is used in the "First-Time Owners" stub in the Value, Purchase Price, and Source of Down Payment table. In 2013 this variable was a yes/no question that read "Have you ever owned a home before?". In 2015 the question text was changed to "Is this the first home you have ever owned?". The issue is an edit, present in both years, that sets FIRSTHOME to a 1 (Yes) if the primary source of the down payment came from the sale of a previous home. For 2015 it should have been set to a 2 (No) due to the way the question wording was changed. As a result, the Value, Purchase Price, and Source of Down Payment table has been revised.

We apologize for the error.

Dav Vandenbroucke
Senior Economist
U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
451 7th Street SW, Room 8222
Washington, DC 20410

Email david.a.vandenbroucke@hud.gov
Phone 202-402-5890