At A Glance

Website

https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs.html

Purpose

The American Housing Survey provides information about the quality and cost of housing in the United States and major metropolitan areas, including the physical condition of homes and neighborhoods, the costs of financing and maintaining homes, and the characteristics of people who live in these homes.

Target Population

The population of residential housing units in the United States.

Conducted

First conducted in 1973 (formerly “Annual Housing Survey”) and was conducted on an annual basis from 1973 to 1981. Currently, conducted biennially in odd-numbered years, with samples redrawn in 1985 and 2015.

Sponsor

Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce

Sampling

Sample Design

Longitudinal Survey.

Sample Size

Each housing unit in the AHS national sample is weighted and represents between 450 and 4000 other housing units in the United States. The weighting is designed to minimize sampling error and utilize independent estimates of occupied and vacant housing units. For information regarding the sample size and response rate on the national sample, see 2019 AHS Integrated National Sample: http://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs/2019/2019 AHS National Sample Design, Weighting, and Error Estimation.pdf. For information on the metro sample, see 2019 AHS Integrated National Sample: Sample Design, Weighting, and Error Estimation: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs/2019/2019 AHS Metropolitan Sample Design, Weighting, and Error Estimation.pdf

The 2019 AHS sample is comprised of 117,537 housing units; of which 34,906 represent the US and the nine Census division, 46,154 housing units represent the Top 15 metropolitan areas (an oversample where National plus the oversample is approximately 3,000 per metro area), 31,292 housing units represent 10 additional metropolitan areas (approximately 3,000 per metro area), and 5,185 housing units are part of a subsidized-renter oversample. From 2015 onward, the same Top 15 metropolitan areas will be oversampled in every survey cycle, as will an additional 10 metros (referred to as the ‘dynamic 10’).

Special Note(s)

The AHS was designed to include two samples, the National sample and the independent Metropolitan area sample. From 1973 to 2005, the AHS was two surveys conducted independently of one another. The National survey was enumerated every other odd-numbered year, while the Metropolitan survey occurred in selected areas on a rotating basis. Starting in 2007, the National and Metropolitan surveys were conducted in the same time-period to reduce costs.

The 2015 American Housing Survey underwent a major redesign – a new sample was redrawn for the first time since 1985 and new households were asked to participate in the survey, the questionnaire was redesigned, variables were dropped, added, or modified, recodes and imputation methods were streamlined, and the weighting methodology changed. As a result, tables were redesigned and some estimates became incomparable with previous years.

Learn more about the American Housing Survey design and methodology here: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs/about/methodology.html

Key Variables

Demographic

Name	Methods of Assessment
Sex of respondent and those living in household	Interview/questionnaire
Date of Birth of respondent and those living in household	Interview/questionnaire
Age of respondent and those living in household	Interview/questionnaire
Marital Status of respondent and those living in household	Interview/questionnaire
Race and Ethnicity of Respondents and those living in household	Interview/questionnaire
Household Income	Interview/questionnaire
Education	Interview/questionnaire
Disabilities	Interview/questionnaire

Diet-Related

Name	Methods of Assessment
Food Worry	Interview/questionnaire
Food Lasting	Interview/questionnaire
Food Availability	Interview/questionnaire
Skipping Meal	Interview/questionnaire
How often skipped meals	Interview/questionnaire
Eating Less due to food insecurity	Interview/questionnaire
Hungry due to food insecurity	Interview/questionnaire
Lost weight due to food insecurity	Interview/questionnaire
Did not eat the whole day due to food insecurity	Interview/questionnaire
How often did not eat whole day due to food insecurity	Interview/questionnaire

Other

Name	Methods of Assessment
Neighborhood Quality	Interview/questionnaire

Data Access and Cost

Data Availability

Obtain data online: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs/data.html

Cost

Free of charge

Geocode/Linkage

Geocode Variable(s)

National, State, Metro Area

Existing Linkages

n/a

Selected Publications

full list of publications: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs/research.html

Resources

General

The 2017 AHS Neighborhood Description Survey: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/AHS-neighborhood-description-study-2017.html#overview-tab