The main sources of these indicators include household interview surveys, borrower

surveys, banks and financial institutions, and the central bank. For comparative data,

information is available from the Housing Indicators Program (see Heged s, Mayo, and

Tosics). 

3.0

BASIC DATA AND DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSES

3.1

Stock/User Matrices

Stock/user matrices are simply cross tabulations of housing types and household

types.  They serve to inform those preparing data for model estimation where the important

elements of a sample of households are located, and are good tools for descriptive

analysis. Each element of the matrix is equal to the number of households of a given type

(A, B, ..., Z) occupying housing of a given type (1, 2, ..., N).

Housing

Household Type

Type

A

B

. . . . . Z

   1

N

1A

N

1B

. . . . . N

1Z

N

1

   2

N

2A

N

2B

. . . . . N

2Z

N

2

   .

   .

   .

   .

.

   .

   .

   .

   .

.

   N

N

NA

N

NB

. . . . . N

NZ

N

N

N

A

N

B

. . . . . N

Z

Matrices may encompass either the entire housing stock, or subcomponents or

strata based on, for example, subsector (public, private, cooperative); new or existing;

city/country, urban/rural; city size; etc. Housing types will typically be defined based on unit

size, quality level and, perhaps, location. Household types typically encompass household

size, income, and, perhaps, age of head of household and gender of head of household.

Stock/user matrices are useful in examining both regularities in patterns of

occupancy and anomalies (such as small households living in big units and vice versa).

1

The existence of many anomalous housing allocations helps identify disequilibria and

distortion that can serve as the focus of policy reform efforts. 

1

For a good description of stock/user matrices and their application, see Strassman, W. Paul.  

The

Transformation of Urban Housing

.  Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982.

I 5