American Housing Survey

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ECS-000066",
  "term": "American Housing Survey",
  "field": "Economic statistics",
  "definition": "Sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, the AHS is the most comprehensive national housing survey in the United States.\n\nThe AHS is a longitudinal housing unit survey that asks questions about the quality of housing in the United States. Returning to the same housing units every other year to gather data, this survey allows users the unique opportunity to analyze housing and household changes over long periods of time. In gathering information, Census Bureau interviewers visit or telephone the household occupying each housing unit in the sample.\n\nThe AHS provides current information on a wide range of housing subjects, including size and composition of the nation's housing inventory, vacancies, fuel usage, physical condition of housing units, characteristics of occupants, equipment breakdowns, home improvements, mortgages and other housing costs, persons eligible for and beneficiaries of assisted housing, home values, and characteristics of recent movers. In addition to these core indicators, the AHS includes topical supplements, which rotate in and out of the questionnaire.\n\nNational and metropolitan data are collected from July through December every 2 years from a sample of housing units. The 2011 sample includes approximately 186,400 housing units and each housing unit in the AHS sample represents itself and over 2,000 other units. The U.S. Census Bureau updates the sample by adding newly constructed housing units and units discovered through coverage improvement efforts. The sample also includes an oversample of assisted housing units, drawn from HUD administrative records. The national survey, which began in 1973, has sampled the same units since 1985.",
  "abbreviation": "AHS",
  "references": [
    "U.S. Census Bureau Glossary"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/economic-statistics/american-housing-survey/"
}