Housing

(Back to the Crossroads Search main page)

1990 Census Public Use Microdata Samples (University of Virginia Social Sciences Data Center)
This site allows for the use of the 1990 Public Use Microdata (PUMS) from the 1990 Census (these data contain housing unit and person records drawn from the 1990 U.S. census sample [long form]). Users can:

• create customized subsets from the 1% PUMS files for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The system will create the customized subset and prepare it for ftp delivery.
• compute a variety of descriptive statistics for variables in the data files of the 1% 1990 PUMS samples for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia
• create crosstabulations for user-defined combinations of two or three variables in the data sets.

The site also includes access to an online version of the PUMS documentation, including the full codebook.

Adversity Index (msnbc.com and Moody's Economy.com)
MSNBC's Adversity Index, also known as the Elkhart Project, is "a measure of the economic health of 381 metro areas and the 50 states." The project takes the form of an interactive map which displays monthly snapshots since June of 1994, with values for employment, single-family housing starts, housing costs, and industrial production, each expressed in terms of percentage change from the previous year. Those four numbers are then used to label the economy of each state or metro area as expansion, at risk, recovery, or in recession. Unfortunately the site's claim that it seeks to provide "the hard numbers around these hard times" does not extend to allowing downloads of the actual data. However, the display and the accompanying news analysis are of interest for identifying trends.

American Community Survey (ACS) (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
The U.S. Census Bureau launched the full implementation of the American Community Survey (ACS) in January 2005, on track to replace the decennial census "long form" for the year 2010. The ACS is sent out to 250,000 households monthly, or approximately 1 in 40 households annually. For areas with populations of 65,000 or more, ACS annual data will be available beginning in the summer of 2006. For areas with populations between 20,000 and 65,000, annual data will first be released in the summer of 2008 based on rolling 3-year averages. For smaller areas down to the tract level, annual data will debut in the summer of 2010 based on rolling 5-year averages. Tables and PUMS for areas included in the test phases of the ACS, back to the first seven counties surveyed in 1996, are available on the web site, with new data to be added as it becomes available.

American FactFinder (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
American FactFinder is the primary online census data dissemination site from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The interface lets users browse, search, and map data from the 1990 Census, the 1997 Economic Census, the American Community Survey, and Census 2000.

American Housing Survey (AHS) (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)
The American Housing Survey (AHS, formerly the Annual Housing Survey) collects national data every other year from a fixed sample of about 50,000 homes plus new construction. Additional samples are taken from metro areas every 4-6 years, to measure local conditions. The AHS includes data on apartments, single-family homes, mobile homes, vacant homes, family composition, income, housing and neighborhood quality, housing costs, equipment, fuels, size of housing unit, and recent movers. Data and documentation are available on the HUD USER web site. Some AHS data is also available via DataFerrett.

Archive of Census Related Products (CIESIN)
Available via anonymous FTP. Provided by John Blodgett of the Missouri State Data Center and held at CIESIN. Here you will find extracts from and documentation of the 1990 Census. See dtree.txt for a directory tree and the README documents in the .support directory for more information about the site. The most recent entry in the "What's New" file is from February 1998.

Basic Tables: 1990 Demographic Profile Generator (University of Missouri-St. Louis, Urban Information Center)
"This application generates a single 1990 'Basic Tables' (demographic profile) report for any of the supported geographic units, including census tract, block group, city (no size limit), 5-digit ZIP code, state, county or metro area for anywhere in the United States. Enter only codes relevant to the area for which you want data." Although this is a terrific resource, it is not necessarily easy to use -- primarily because the selection is geographic code-based rather than clicking on a selection list. The good news is that there is a Lots of Helpful Examples document to help get you started; this document provides links to places that can help you get the codes you need.

Census 2000 Adjusted Data (UCLA Institute for Social Science Research)

These Census 2000 adjusted data are estimates of the population using a statistical adjustment based on the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.), a sample survey intended to measure net over- and undercounts in the Census 2000 results. The A.C.E. estimates dramatically overstated the level of undercoverage in Census 2000, so the decision was made that the adjusted data are not to be used for legal purposes. This is not a Census Bureau web site, and the Department of Commerce, including the U.S. Census Bureau, will provide no assistance in the interpretation or use of these numbers.

These materials are similar to the content and organization of the files produced for P.L. 94-171, supplied for all states and all levels of geography. The files are compressed; the approximate compressed file size is 550 mb.

Census 2000 Data (Center for Social and Demographic Analysis, University of Albany)
This site comprises a nice set of annotated links to Census 2000 information and data.

Census Bureau FTP site (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
For those who like to ferret out files without the annoyances of a fancy front end --check out the census_1980, census_1990, and census_2000 directories.

Census Product Catalog (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
The Census Product Catalog provides descriptions and ordering contact information for Census Bureau products -- CD-ROMs, DVDs, publications, maps and other statistical and reference products. This is now the only product catalog on the Census web site; e-sales were discontinued in Fall 2007. The catalog contains brief product descriptions but no prices; customers must call the Customer Service Center for price and ordering information.

Center for Population Health and Health Disparities (CPHHD) Data Core (The RAND Corporation)
The Center for Population Health and Health Disparities (CPHHD) of the RAND Corporation has made available online a collection of public use datasets designed for analyzing disparities in cost-of-living, disability, pollution, population and housing characteristics, segregation, street connectivity, and neighborhood socioeconomic status in the United States. The datasets are derived from public-use data from the U.S. Census, the American Chamber of Commerce Research Association, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Most of the data covers the 1990-2000 time period. The data is available for various geographic summarization areas including census tract, county, and MSA, and has also been put into both 1990 and 2000 geographical definitions. Data formats include SAS, Stata, and CSV. Free registration is required, along with a description of the research and who else is collaborating on the project, and registrations are reviewed before access is granted.

Colorado by the Numbers (CBN) (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library)
Colorado by the Numbers was developed in 1996 as “an online statistical abstract for the State of Colorado.” At the time, it was primarily populated with data downloaded from CD-ROM products. The earlier data originating from CD-ROMs is still available, but updates have taken the form of annotated links to other online entities with information about Colorado, from airports to immigration to taxation to traffic safety. A very nice collection of links, but the format may come as a surprise to users expecting a more traditional statistical abstract.

DataPlace (KnowledgePlex and Fannie Mae Foundation)
The DataPlace web site aims to be a one-stop resource for U.S. housing and demographic data. The initial data sources include the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy special Census tabulation, Population Projections and Population & Housing Estimates from the U.S. Census, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, Individual Tax Return Summary Data from the IRS, and County and ZIP Business Patterns. Via the interactive interface, users can choose indicators, geographies, and years (available years depend on the indicator). Output can be in the form of quick profiles, maps, or bar or line charts with an HTML table. Registered users (registration is free) can save output to a personalized "My DataPlace" area of the site. The site also includes a calendar for data releases, a feature for housing data news, and an excellent list of links to housing and demographic data compiled from the EconData.Net database.

DiversityData (Harvard School of Public Health)
The DiversityData project at the Harvard School of Public Health is aimed at users who are interested in describing, profiling and ranking United States metropolitan areas in terms of quality of life, with an emphasis on diversity issues. The site encourages researchers, policymakers and community advocates to make use of the data to advocate for policy action and social change. Visitors to the site can examine metropolitan areas on a range of social measures such as education, housing opportunities, economic opportunities, residential integration, and health, using data from multiple data sources. The emphasis on diversity applies to various racial/ethnic, income and nativity groups. The strength of the DiversityData resource is its user-friendly menus and its display of profiles, rankings and maps. The site currently only offers a single year worth of data for any variable, and focuses on data display rather than download.

Finfacts Worldwide Cost of Living Survey (Finfacts)
The FinFacts Worldwide Cost of Living Survey provides information related to the cost of living in cities throughout the world. Tabulated information is provided on the cities with the highest cost as well as cost of living comparisons. The site also has an internal link to Worldwide quality of life rankings.

General Household Survey, Great Britain (Social Survey Division, Office for National Statistics)
According to the GHS web site, “The General Household Survey (GHS) is a multi-purpose continuous survey carried out by the Social Survey Division of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which collects information on a range of topics from people living in private households in Great Britain. The survey started in 1971 and has been carried out continuously since then, except for breaks in 1997/98 (when the survey was reviewed) and 1999/2000 when the survey was re-developed.” General Household Survey documentation and datasets are online at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=5756&More=N. A particularly user-friendly presentation of GHS 2002 results, including time-series tables in Excel, can be found in the Living in Britain 2002 report at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/lib2002/ (the 2000 and 2001 reports are also online).

German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) (Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW))
The GSOEP is a longitudinal study of private households across Germany, ongoing since 1984. Some of the many topics include household composition, occupational biographies, employment, earnings, health and satisfaction indicators. The GSOEP web site carries information about the study, including the questionnaires and a web interface to the data (SOEPinfo) that allows for frequency queries and item correspondence. Also available is contact information for obtaining the data directly from GSOEP. [NOTE: DISC has 1984-2002 available on CD-ROM in the library, Study #CA-511-001; more current data releases are available for purchase from GSOEP.]

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Public Data (Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC))
This site makes available reports from public data mandated by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) 0f 1975. Aggregate reports and disclosure reports from individual financial institutions back to 1999 are available online in PDF. Users can also retrieve HMDA disclosure reports from individual financial institutions. The FFIEC carries a similar site at http://www.ffiec.gov/cra/default.htm for reports resulting from the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977, meant to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate.

Housing and Household Economic Statistics (HHES) (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
This page leads to statistics on several broad topics covered by the Census Bureau: housing, disability, health insurance, income, industry, labor force, occupation, poverty, program participation dynamics, small area income and poverty, wealth, and welfare reform.

HUD USER (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)
"Contains over 6,000 reports, articles, case studies, and other research literature on topics related to housing and community development. The database is comprised of reports that were produced or sponsored by HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research, as well as research published in the academic, professional, government, and popular press." Allows downloading of datasets available from HUD: American Housing Survey; Annual Adjustment Factors; Assisted Housing: National and Local Data; Government Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) Mortgage Data; Income Limits; Fair Market Rents; Low-Income Housing Tax Credit; Property Owners and Managers Survey (POMS); Section 8 Administrative Fees; and State of the Cities Data Systems -- live extraction of data for individual cities, and State of the Nations Cities Database.

IEA Census State Data Center – Arkansas (University of Arkansas at Little Rock, College of Business)
The web site of the IEA Census State Data Center for Arkansas features online decennial census data for Arkansas, with 2000 Census data in drop-down menus for user-generated tables, and pre-selected ASCII format tables for 1980 and 1990 data. A new site highlight is Comprehensive Housing Affordable Strategy (CHAS) Data Tables from Census 2000. The site also features population estimates and projects from the Census Bureau. The print version Arkansas Statistical Abstract is available for purchase under the Publications section of the site.

Madison Neighborhood Indicators Project (City of Madison, Wisconsin)
The Madison Neighborhood Indicators Project program, funded by the City of Madison (Wisconsin) and hosted by UW-Madison's Applied Population Lab, offers a single year of selected data indicators plus mapping capability, covering the city of Madison as a whole and 70 neighborhoods, also organized as 57 planning districts. Indicators for each neighborhood include a basic area & population profile, public safety indicators, health & well-being indicators, community action & involvement indicators, economic vitality indicators, and housing quality & availability indicators. Mapping and neighborhood-comparison tools are available on the site. Note that some indicators, particularly relating to health and family well-being, are suppressed at the neighborhood level due to privacy concerns. The project launched as a pilot in 2008 with 5 neighborhoods, and went city-wide in October 2009.

Metropolitan Racial and Ethnic Change--Census 2000 (Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research, State University of New York at Albany)
These pages from the Lewis Mumford Center offer information and analyses of how the racial and ethnic composition of metropolitan areas has shifted from 1990 to 2000, and how increasing diversity is experienced at the level of local neighborhoods. The data page of the site offers 11 topic choices, relying on Census data, including segregation in the population as a whole, school segregation, and homeowners/renters. For each topic, there are 3 ways to view the data: select a metro area (HTML output), sortable lists (again HTML, but the tables can be re-sorted with a mouse click), or download as Excel files.

Minority Data Resource Center (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR))
The Minority Data Resource Center (MDRC) is a new addition to ICPSR’s growing collection of special-purpose archives, showcasing existing ICPSR data. The focus of the MDRC is data for comparative analysis of issues affecting racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States. The subject coverage of the selected studies runs the gamut from education to housing to poverty to political participation. MDRC data falls into two general categories: studies that focus specifically on minority populations, such as the National Black Election Studies series; and studies with large enough sample sizes or ethnic/racial oversampling to permit meaningful analysis of issues that affect race and ethnic minority populations, such as the American Housing Survey series. While documentation is freely browsable, data download is available only to ICPSR member institutions, including UW-Madison.

National Neighborhood Indicators Project (NNIP) (Urban Institute)

The National Neighborhood Indicators Project (NNIP) is a collaborative effort by the Urban Institute and local partners to further the development and use of neighborhood-level information systems in local policymaking and community building. With 32 partners as of June 2009, from Atlanta to Washington, the NNIP fosters local projects to gather and use local data to effect community change. Arts and Local Culture Indicators are a recent addition to the project, along with a Foreclosure Resources site. Note that reports on the site of partner activities are often in PDF. Access to actual data may take considerable drilling-down into partner web sites.

Visit DISC in person to use the Urban Institutes flagship data product, the Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB), to analyze decennial Census data at the tract level from 1970 through 2000.

National Priorities Project Database (National Priorities Project (NPP))
The National Priorities Project (NPP) is a United-States-based non-partisan education and advocacy group that "focuses on the impacts of federal tax and spending policies at the community level." The NPP takes a particular interest in the trade-offs between military spending and tax breaks versus social spending. The NPP Database provides state and county level data on U.S. federal spending in the following areas: hunger, military, income & poverty, housing, education, and labor, in addition to basic demographics. Users can select up to five "datasets" (i.e., specific federal programs or demographic attributes) to create an HTML table covering multiple states or multiple counties within one state, with information as far back as 1983. Users are requested to complete a free registration to use the database after their first visit.

National Survey of Families and Households (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Contains the most current edition of those data, right here at the UW. After reading the online documentation, follow the link to the ftp site for downloading. There is also an excellent bibliography on the site.

PolicyMap (The Reinvestment Fund)

PolicyMap is a geographic information system that lets users map, graph, and organize data relevant to neighborhood planning and economic revitalization. The site carries data on demographics, real-estate, crime, income, education, and jobs – over 4,000 indicators. Depending on the data, maps and reports can be focused on areas as small as block groups or census tracts, or as large as states.

The site has many components available with a free registration, and others available to subscribers only. The free data comes from such agencies as the Census, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the Social Security Administration (SSA), and other US government agencies. Fee-based, subscriber-only data comes mostly from Claritas, a consumer-data and demographics firm that produces projections and annual small-area estimates. Subscribers can also upload data and create custom mapping regions. (UW-Madison does not subscribe).

The oldest data is from the 2000 Census, while the most current is the 2008 Presidential Contributions by state and ZIP code. A complete list of PolicyMap data can be found at http://www.policymap.com/our-data.html.

Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and Harvard School of Public Health; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)

According to the web site at ICPSR, “The Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) is a large-scale, interdisciplinary study of how families, schools, and neighborhoods affect child and adolescent development. It was designed to advance the understanding of the developmental pathways of both positive and negative human social behaviors.” Three types of quantitative data are available as of December 2005:

1. Systematic Social Observation data, collected in 1995 by videotaping sampled city blocks and coding characteristics.
2. A Longitudinal Cohort Study collected three waves of data (1994-1997, 1997-1999, and 2000-2001) from a sample of children, adolescents, young adults, and their primary caregivers.
3. An Infant Assessment unit of the Longitudinal Cohort Study.

Data from Community Surveys, conducted in 1994-95, will be forthcoming, as will qualitative data collected from the videorecordings in the Systematic Social Observation and Infant Assessment units.

SimplyMap (Geographic Research, Inc.)
SimplyMap is a web-based mapping site that allows users to create thematic maps and reports using demographic, business and marketing data. The product is particularly strong for recent estimates and projections, at geographic levels as small as ZIP codes, census tracts, or block groups. SimplyMap draws on Census 2000 data, 2006 & 2007 Census estimates, 2011 & 2012 Census projections. Other groups of variables include consumer expenditures, consumer price index, business counts, market segments, retail sales, and sales potential. Note: UW-Madison subscribes to SimplyMap via IP authentication. Each user must also register at the SimplyMap site to create a personal workspace.

State and County QuickFacts (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
This site provides easy access to look up figures for individual states, counties, MSAs, or Congressional Districts from STF1A, 3A, Tiger map files, USA Counties general profile and County Business Patterns economic profile (one unit at a time!).

State of the Cities Data System (SOCDS) at HUDuser (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)
The SOCDS offers an interactive interface providing data on metropolitan areas, central cities and suburbs on the following subjects:

• demographic and economic data from the 1970 through 2000 U.S. censuses
• current employment statistics from the BLS’ Local Area Unemployment Statistics
• jobs, business establishments, and average pay from County Business Patterns data
• crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
• building permit data from U.S. Census Bureau
• urban public finance data from the Census of Governments

State of the Nation's Cities: A Comprehensive Database on American Cities and Suburbs (Center for Urban Policy Studies, Rutgers University)
This database of 77 cities and suburbs was contracted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of the 1996 United Nations' Habitat II conference. The SONC database brings together over 3,000 variables from a wide variety of sources, allowing easy comparability of indicators on employment and economic development, demographic measures, housing and land use, income and poverty, fiscal conditions, and a host of other health, social, and environmental indicators." Users may download in a variety of formats including plain ASCII, SPSS portable file, Excel file, SAS formatted file, and a special file for Macintosh users.

The US Counties IN Profile (Stats Indiana and Indiana Business Research Center, Indiana University Kelley School of Business)
“The US Counties IN Profile” allows users to pick a state and county and see how they are ranked in terms of various statistical categories. Categories include population, number of households, labor force, unemployment rate, per capita personal income, poverty rate, and many others. Users can choose the state, and then choose a county and also see how the county ranks in terms of other counties within the state. Also available are comparisons between two counties. Data is provided in HTML tables only.

U.N. Social Indicators (United Nations Statistics Division)
Most-recently-collected year's worth of basic figures for many countries, in HTML tables, in these categories: population, child-bearing, youth and elderly populations, education, human settlements, literacy, water supply and sanitation, income and economic activity, housing, and unemployment.

U.S. Census Resources on the Web (Beth Harper, Government Documents Reference Librarian, University of Wisconsin--Madison)
Beth Harper, a Government Documents reference librarian at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, compiled this annotated bibliography of web sites regarding the U.S. Census. The site is divided into three categories: statistics about people, statistics about economics, and general statistics.

United States Historical Census Data Browser (University of Virginia and Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR))
Data presented here describes the people and the economy of the U.S. for each state and county from 1790 to 1960 as provided by U.S. Census results.

Vietnam Demography and Society Research Projects (Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington and Institute of Sociology, Hanoi - Vietnam)
The Vietnam Demography and Society Research Projects comprise two component projects: the Vietnam Life History Survey 1991 (VLHS) and the Vietnam Longitudinal Survey 1995-1998 (VLS). The Vietnam Life History Survey included 4 samples of about 100 households each, stratified by urban/rural areas. Data includes both individual and household files. Questions included household composition, marriage and fertility history, educational and employment history, residence history, and materials and contents of home. The Vietnam Longitudinal Survey was the first longitudinal survey to be conducted in the field of sociology in Vietnam, with a baseline of 1,855 households and 4,464 individuals interviewed in the first round of the survey. Three follow-up surveys were subsequently administered. For both the VLHS and the VLS, codebooks and data (in SPSS) can be freely downloaded from the site.

Windows on Urban Poverty (Bruton Center and University of Texas at Dallas)
The Windows on Urban Poverty site takes Census data from 1970 through 2000 to map the geographic dimension of poverty in the United States. The user can select a city or metropolitan area, view the location of high-poverty census tracts, and observe the changes in high-poverty areas over time. The maps can also show race, ethnicity, population density, housing value and housing age. The user interface is a simplified GIS system; for a more complex mapping tool covering the same data, come to DISC and use the Census Neighborhood Change CD-ROM. Note: the Windows on Urban Poverty site was down 1/24/07 due to hackers.

World Development Indicators (UW-Madison Subscription) (World Bank)
The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. The latest WDI includes approximately 800 indicators in 87 tables, organized in six sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links. The tables cover 152 economies and 14 country groups-with basic indicators for a further 55 economies. WDI timeseries data begins in 1960. The latest "print version" is online at http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.web/worlddevelopmentindicatorstext. Note: UW-Madison subscribes via IP-authentication.

(Back to the Crossroads Search main page)