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RE: Time is Running Out to Make Your Voice Heard - 5

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AHS

Mr. Spatter:

Thank you for your comments. Here are a few quick points.

  1. Housing cost is an important component of the American Housing Survey. We already collect the purchase price and estimated current value for owner-occupied housing . We identify housing units in central cities. We will continue to do this in 2015.

  2. Conversion to and from nonresidential use is also included in the current survey. We return to the same housing units in each survey so that we can find out what happened to them. “Conversion from” nonresidential is harder to detect that “conversion to,” but the fact that the new sample will be based on the Census Bureau’s Master Address File may make that a little easier.

  3. AHS is a housing unit survey. Hotels and hotel rooms are not in scope, as they are not housing units.

  4. Dormitories and such are group quarters, and thus out of scope for the AHS. Off-campus apartments are housing units and would be in scope. We do have a category of occupancy called “usual residence elsewhere,” which would include students living in apartments who did not consider the unit to be their permanent residence. However, we don’t ask specifically if occupants are students. Do you think that this would be useful to ask?

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

    The American Housing Survey should include such items as:

    1) Cost of single-family houses in the city.

    2) Number of buildings converted from other uses to housing and number of units included.

    3) Number of hotels in the community and number of hotel rooms.

    4) Student housing numbers (by units)

    Sam Spatter, reporter, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 412-320-7843 sspatter@tribweb.com

 

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