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AHS: Components of Inventory Change, 1985-95

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Six years in the making, the Components of Inventory Change (CINCH) reports are on the web. You can download the files in PDF format from https://www.huduser.gov/datasets/cinch.html .

These reports were produced by ICF Consulting under contract with HUD. Greg Watson of ICF went beyond the call of money by insisting that he would get the job finished when the contract ran out. It has been a long and bumpy ride. We are grateful to many people who helped, especially Dennis Schwanz at the Census Bureau, who contributed the weighting procedures that made our ears bleed.

Here is the formal description of the files on the web site:

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The Components of Inventory Change (CINCH) report measures changes in the characteristics of the housing stock of the United States. Using data collected from the national American Housing Survey (AHS), conducted every two years, the characteristics of individual housing units are compared across time. This comparison allows researchers to see not only changes in the characteristics of housing units, but also in the characteristics of occupants. Information is available on the characteristics of units added and removed from the housing stock.

First-time users of this publication are advised to refer to the Appendices and notes immediately preceding the tables for explanations of the columns and how to interpret the results. The Appendices also contain the definitions of all of the characteristics, cautions, and explanations about some of the results.

Each report has two sections. The first section, labeled "Losses," shows the losses to the housing stock in the two-year period using the first year as the base year. In other words, the first section shows the disposition of all the units that were present at the beginning of the period. The second section, labeled "Gains," shows the gains in the housing stock during the two-year period, using the second year of the period as the base year. That is to say, the second section shows the source of all the units that were present at the end of the period.

The "Summary of Components of Inventory Change: 1985-1995" document is a compilation of the five two-year reports

All of the reports are based on the American Housing Survey national sample. The results presented here are not directly comparable to the Census Bureau publications "Components of Inventory Change: 1980-1991," or "Components of Inventory Change: 1980-1993."

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We do plan to bring the series forward to the current AHS survey. I hope it won't take another six years.

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