The survey covers a variety of questions.  Housing unit characteristics are recorded

in detail.  The collection of data is focused on housing, including apartments, single family

homes, mobile homes, vacant housing units; their size and quality; quality of the

neighborhood; and characteristics of the housing inventory. Data relating to housing

expenses, such as rent, utilities bills, and maintenance costs are also gathered.

3

  Financial

characteristics of owners and renters, including total household income, are included.

Using these income data in comparison to other data collected in the survey, analysts can

assess the burden of housing costs on all socio economic groups. Finally, mortgage

payments and mortgage credit are examined. Specific themes and responses are listed

below.

Tenure and Mobility

The AHS has returned to the same housing units year after year to gather data

since 1985, which is ideal for examining the residential mobility and the flow of households

through housing. Analysts can also see changes over time in the size of households in

both owners' and renters' homes, lot size, and differences in the housing of families above

and below the poverty line. In addition, samples are taken in some metropolitan areas

every 4 6 years to measure local conditions.

The tenure of the housing unit is examined; the unit, condominium, or cooperative

is considered  owner occupied  if the owner or co owner lives in the unit, even if it is

mortgaged or not fully paid for. All other occupied residential units are considered  renter 

occupied,  classified by subsidized and non subsidized renters.

4

Mobility is measured in several ways, with the objective of establishing the year in

which the current occupancy of the householder began, so the year the householder

moved into the unit is recorded.  This history includes a move from one apartment to

another in the same building. It is usually the case that the entire household moves when

the respondent householder moves.

Other topics covered by the AHS include:

!

Household Demographic Characteristics

  Number of persons in household, by age

  Number of single children under 18 years old

  Number of persons 65 years old and over

3

See the Department of Housing and Urban Development's website, which includes a summary of the

Survey's findings (http://www.huduser.org/data/other/ahsqwik.html).

4

Current Housing Report H170/96 59: American Housing Survey for the St. Louis Metropolitan Area in

1996.

 Issued November 1997

.

 Appendix A, p. A 5.

IV 2