American Housing Survey (AHS)

DESCRIPTION: Prior to 1984, the American Housing Survey (AHS) was called the Annual Housing Survey. It is comprised of two major collections: (1) a national survey of housing units throughout the country, and (2) surveys of housing units in selected metropolitan areas. The national data are released by Census in two forms: the National Core file and the National Core and Supplement.

National data are collected in odd numbered years, and data for each of 47 selected Metropolitan Areas are collected currently about every six years. The national sample covers an average 55,000 housing units. Each metropolitan area sample covers 4,100 or more housing units. For all AHS, data are collected on whether the housing units have kitchens, heating units, and electrical systems and, if so, how well these work. Information on the costs incurred for mortgage payments, real estate taxes, property insurance, utilities, and garbage collection allow comparisons of housing costs from one year to another or between geographic areas. Data collected on income can be used in conjunction with annual housing expenditures to estimate the average percentage of families and primary individuals' incomes that is spent on housing. Households that have moved in the last 12 months prior to enumeration are asked to provide comparative information on the current and previous residences of household heads. Information is collected on whether employment, family, or other factors such as changes in neighborhood or financial conditions influenced the decision to move. Demographic information, including age, sex, race, marital status, income, and relationship to householder is collected for each household member. Years of school completed, Spanish origin, length of residence, and tenure is provided for the householder.

Using the Data: The general structure of the collection of files in 1997 is different from the 1995 file structure and earlier versions. The 1997 files are more analogous to a relational database, so it is not possible to simply merge the files together to create the flat file. Each file is based on the unit of observation for that file. For example, the file about the housing unit structure has one observation for each housing unit. The file about the people who live in the housing unit has one observation for each person in the household; if there are multiple persons in the household, there will be multiple observations. As a result, the files have different numbers of observations depending on base unit of observation.

Raw AHS data are collected and stored in the format of the different modules, while the SAS file combines the different module files into a flat-file format that is similar to that of the 1995 dataset. Variables which are converted (have their names changed) in the creation of the single file version are noted in the codebook text.

CODEBOOKS: Codebook of the AHS Public Use File (covering 1997 and later years) is available on the local area network (R:\CFDR\Public\Data\AHS). Codebooks and questionnaires can also be obtained from the AHS website (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/ahs.html) or from the website of the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) and HUD USER (http://www.huduser.org/datasets/ahs/ahsdata03.html).

DATA: Data are available from the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) and HUD USER (http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/ahs.html).

They include: 2007 AHS National Data, 2003 AHS National Data, 2002 AHS Metro Data, 2001 AHS National Data, 1999 AHS National Data, 1998 AHS Metro Data, and 1997 AHS National Data.