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Re: AHS: Opinions sought on proposed changes.

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Sandee, are you using the structural defect questions? Have the distinctions among different kinds of roof, wall, and window problems been important in your work? We are trying to reduce respondent burden where we can, so that the net effect on the 2005 instrument will be less onerous, given that we are adding more income questions and items related to assisted living. If you know of specific work in which the form of the current questions is important, we'd like to know about that.

It's too early for me to go into details about the income questions. We have several alternative specifications which will have to be tested by the Census Bureau. The main purpose of the changes is to improve our measurement of non-labor income, since that appears to be the main reason why the AHS reports lower incomes than other surveys.

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