Posted at 1:31 a.m., Thursday, April 12, 2007
Census Bureau survey to update housing information
Advertiser Staff
Over the next few days some households in Hawai'i may receive letters or be contacted by the U.S. Census Bureau asking them to take part in the American Housing Survey, which it calls the most comprehensive survey of U.S. housing between dicennial censuses.The survey begins April 23 and will include information from interviews from 76,000 housing units across the U.S.
A Census Bureau news release said that before the survey, local households in the nationwide sample will receive an informational letter from Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon explaining that they will be interviewed by field representatives who carry official identification. Besides visiting occupied housing units, the field representatives obtain data on unoccupied units from landlords, rental agents or neighbors. By law, the Census Bureau protects the confidentiality of all identifying information about survey respondents and their housing units.
Field representatives will ask residents questions about the size, composition and condition of the house, and the financial and demographic characteristics of the people who live there. Other questions ask about the lot size, the year the structure was built, plumbing facilities, type of mortgage, source of water, frequency of equipment failures, condition of the neighborhood, and the residents' opinions of their neighborhoods. Most residents in the AHS survey are visited once every two years. A small group in some large metropolitan areas are interviewed every six to eight years, the news release said.
The Census Bureau has been conducting the AHS since 1973 for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Joint HUD-Census Bureau reports on the survey's findings are issued about 12 months after the interviews are completed.
Data in the reports answer such questions as:
