Guest Editor's Introduction

Shawn Bucholtz, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or the U.S. government at large.

The American Housing Survey (AHS) is the largest regular national housing sample survey in the United States. The AHS began in 1973 and has used the same longitudinal sample of housing units since 1985. The AHS instrument asks numerous questions concerning housing-related topics, including housing unit size and condition, household characteristics, neighborhood amenities, housing costs, rents and mortgages, and reasons for moving. Information from the AHS is important for monitoring the overall housing market, the housing stock, and the performance of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing programs. Most AHS users create single-survey, cross-section estimates. A smaller number of users make use of the longitudinal structure of the AHS.