past several years. As described above, most published statistical data are national or

voivodship level aggregates.  As municipalities begin to develop locally based community

development strategies, they quickly determine that they need local data to facilitate local

analyses and monitoring systems. One of the first attempts at assembling local indicators

resulted from the inclusion of Poland in the Central and Eastern European Country

Monographs for Habitat II; information was collected in Warsaw. Other efforts (Szczecin,

Ostrow Wielkopolski, and Gdynia, for example) evolved from strategic housing or

economic development processes that identified data needs, sources and gaps.

 In general, while data is available to gminas to describe basic demographic trends,

there is insufficient data on household income, savings, and preferences for housing and

housing investment. Similarly, assessment of housing demand is hindered by the lack of

supply side data on historic and current sales prices, housing development costs, and use

of financing mechanisms, including subsidies as well as more detailed descriptive

information of the housing products. This type of information is crucial to local

governments responsible for helping to meet the housing needs of its residents.  Also,

surveys have been undertaken to determine satisfaction with current housing conditions,

housing preferences and desire to change, and effective demand for housing, to assist in

determining appropriate directions for local housing and community development

strategies by several local governments.

#

Szczecin.

  Selected indicators for Szczecin were developed in conjunction with

Szczecin's Housing Policy Group in the process of developing the city s housing strategy,

which was supported by USAID.  During the development of the strategy, emphasis was

placed on the importance of monitoring selected key conditions in the housing sector and

progress in housing policy goal attainment. Thus, the indicators were selected to monitor

both the local housing system and the progress of housing strategy implementation.

Indicators include those that use existing data sources as well as some for which data

must be generated. For instance, Szczecin had not as yet begun to record data on sales

prices (although it had information on the prices of communal units sold).  The

municipalities should, in fact, be accessing sales price data from the real estate brokerage

community, the courts (sales records) and local cooperatives.

Szczecin's housing survey originated from review of the extensive research

conducted by the Szczecin Housing Policy Group to assess local housing conditions for

development of the local housing policy. A glaring deficiency in their research, and

essential to developing an effective housing policy and strategy, was thorough information

on household income and housing expenditures. Due to a lack of income data, a phased

program was conceived to attempt to develop a baseline of local income data. Local

research firms, Habitat and the Social Research Center, were commissioned to conduct

a field survey of 1,000 families selected as representative of the city's population.

The survey findings were compared against estimates and assessments of gross

and net annual income of Szczecin residents obtained through two methodological

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