Social Security, public assistance, or welfare payments

  Household property insurance

Findings

Much can be learned from studying the data collected in this type of survey. For

instance, the results show that one of the most critical housing problems in the United

States remains the gap between what people can afford to pay and the cost of their

homes.  For example, almost one quarter of rural households currently pay more than 30

percent of their incomes for housing, which is defined as "cost burdened" under federal

standards.

5

One study using data from the 1987 American Housing Survey concluded that

federal housing programs have little effect on the participants' expenditures on housing

(4.4 percent increase), but a great effect on their non housing expenditures (141 percent

increase). Furthermore, the assistance seems to lower the housing expenditures of 42

percent of participating households. Finally, it was estimated that substituting cash

subsidies for in kind housing assistance will provide more housing, but with smaller non 

housing expenditures, than the current (primarily in kind) system.

6

THE SURVEY OF CONSUMER FINANCES

7

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is sponsored by the Board of Governors

of the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) to report on selected financial characteristics of  U.S.

households.  It is a triennial survey of families' labor force participation, financial balance

sheet, pensions, use of financial services, demographic characteristics, household income,

investments, borrowing, and expenses.  A wide range of financial assets is covered.

Detailed questions are asked about credit cards, mortgage loans, education loans, health

insurance coverage, inheritances, and charity giving.

Households across the full economic spectrum are interviewed about their finances

and their use of financial institutions. As with the American Housing Survey, the U.S.

5

Housing Assistance Council. 

Rural Housing and Welfare Reform

. Washington, DC. 1997.

6

Crews, Amy D.   Do Housing Programs for Low Income Households Improve Their Housing?   Center

for Policy Research, Syracuse University, Metropolitan Program Studies Paper No. 178.  (April 1996).  (See

http://www cpr.maxwell.syr.edu/metro/abs178.htm)

7

This information is also available on the Internet at the website of the Federal Reserve Board, as well

as the full questionnaire, codebooks, other data documentation, and technical working papers describing survey

methodology and results.  See (http://www.bog.frb.fed.us/BoardDocs/Surveys/). Other background information on

the SCF can be found in Arthur B. Kennickell, Martha Starr McCluer, and Annika E. Sunden,  Family Finances in

the U.S.: Recent Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances,   

Federal Reserve Bulletin

, vol. 83 (January

1997), pp. 1 24.

IV 6