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From: david_a._vandenbroucke@hud.gov on 11/2/2006 10:35:59 AM
Subject: AHS: Missing Type C Records in 2005 Dataset

The 2005 American Housing Survey dataset is missing some records representing
units that were classified as "type C" non-interviews in 2003. We will be
issuing an updated dataset at some point in the future to correct this.

What does this mean? When an address in the AHS sample cannot be interviewed,
it is classified as one of three types of non-interview. A "type A"
non-interview occurs when the address contains a housing unit, but the
interview cannot be completed (for example, because the household refuses). A
"type B" non-interview occurs when the structure is not a housing unit but may
become one later (for example, nonresidential use or repairable damage). A
"type C" non-interview occurs when the structure is not a housing unit and
never will be (for example, burned down, demolished, or building permit never
used). The variable NOINT in the dataset is used to indicate the type and
reason for non-interviews.

Because the AHS is a longitudinal survey, the records of Type C noninterview
cases are maintained in the dataset, even though the Census field
representatives no longer attempt to conduct interviews at those addresses.
However, some of the units that were classified as type C in the 2003 national
survey are not in the 2005 dataset. This is the mistake that will be corrected.

Note that, since the units were type C in 2003, no information was collected
about them in that year, let alone in 2005. Noninterview cases always have
weights (WEIGHT, WGT90GEO) equal to zero, although their pure weights (PWT) are
greater than zero.

If your work requires accounting for these units, you can always go back to the
2003 dataset and extract the records for the missing units. Type C records
have a value of NOINT between 30 and 38, inclusive.

Dav Vandenbroucke
Senior Economist
U.S. Dept. HUD
david_a._vandenbroucke@hud.gov
202-708-1060 ext. 5890


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From: david_a._vandenbroucke@hud.gov on 11/3/2006 10:45:51 AM
Subject: AHS: Housing Affordability Data System

I am very pleased to announce the release of the Housing
Affordability Data System (HADS), downloadable from the HUD
USER web site at https://www.huduser.gov/datasets/hads/hads.html .

The HADS is a set of files derived from the 1985-2003
national American Housing Survey (AHS) and the 2002 and 2004
Metro AHS. This system categorizes housing units by
affordability and households by income, with respect to the
Adjusted Median Income, Fair Market Rent (FMR), and poverty
income. It also includes housing cost burden for owner and
renter households. Note that the affordability classification
covers owned, rented, and vacant units. These files have been
the basis for HUD's worst case needs tables since 2001. The
data files were derived from AHS public use files and the
published income limits and FMRs. Thus, they contain no
proprietary or confidential information. We are providing
these files give the community of housing analysts the
opportunity to use a consistent set of affordability measures.

The web page provides the datasets in SAS and ASCII formats.
They include the AHS CONTROL variable (CONTROL and SMSA for
the metro files) so that users can link them to the regular
AHS files.

I recommend that you begin by downloading the documentation
file (PDF), which explains the contents of the datasets. The
web site also includes a zip archive containing the SAS code
that was used to generate the datasets, so that you can see
exactly how each new variable was computed.

Dav Vandenbroucke
Senior Economist
U.S. Dept. HUD
david_a._vandenbroucke@hud.gov
202-708-1060 ext. 5890


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From: david_a._vandenbroucke@hud.gov on 11/3/2006 11:27:48 AM
Subject: AHS 2005 data on CD-ROM

The 2005 American Housing Survey dataset is now available on
CD-ROM. For your convenience, there is a button to order the
CD on the 2005 AHS page on HUD USER,
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahs.html .

The CD contains the 2005 dataset in both SAS and ASCII
formats. It also contains all of the documentation files
that are available for download on the 2005 web page. Note
that the files on the CD are exactly the same as those on the
web site. We make the CD available for those of you who want
a copy of the data and documentation on an archival storage
device.

Dav Vandenbroucke
Senior Economist
U.S. Dept. HUD
david_a._vandenbroucke@hud.gov
202-708-1060 ext. 5890


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