DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03174
title: American Housing Survey, 1998: Metropolitan Microdata
title: Archival Version

description: The metropolitan survey is conducted in even-numbered
 years, cycling through a set of 41 metropolitan areas, surveying each
 one about once every six years. This data collection provides
 information on the characteristics of a metropolitan sample of housing
 units including apartments, single-family homes, mobile homes, and
 vacant housing units. The data are presented in eight separate parts:
 Part 1, Housing Unit Record (Main Record), Part 2, Mortgages (Owners
 Only), Part 3, Manager and Owner Record (Renters Only), Part 4, Person
 Record, Part 5, Ratio Verification, Part 6, Mover Group Record, Part
 7, Recodes (One Record per Housing Unit), and Part 8, Weights. Data
 include year the structure was built, type and number of living
 quarters, occupancy status, access, number of rooms, presence of
 commercial establishments on the property, and property value.
 Additional data focus on kitchen and plumbing facilities, types
 of heating fuel used, source of water, sewage disposal, heating and
 air-conditioning equipment, and major additions, alterations, or
 repairs to the property. Information provided on housing expenses
 includes monthly mortgage or rent payments, cost of services such as
 utilities, garbage collection, and property insurance, and amount of
 real estate taxes paid in the previous year. Also included is
 information on whether the household received government assistance to
 help pay heating or cooling costs or for other energy-related
 services. Similar data are provided for housing units previously
 occupied by respondents who had recently moved. Additionally,
 indicators of housing and neighborhood quality are supplied. Housing
 quality variables include privacy of bedrooms, condition of kitchen
 facilities, basement or roof leakage, breakdowns of plumbing
 facilities and equipment, and overall opinion of the structure. For
 quality of neighborhood, variables include use of exterminator
 services, existence of boarded-up buildings, and overall quality of
 the neighborhood. In addition to housing characteristics, some
 demographic data are provided on household members, such as age, sex,
 race, marital status, income, and relationship to householder.
 Additional data provided on the householder include years
 of school completed, Spanish origin, length of residence, and length
of occupancy.
description: Please review the "Sample Status, Weights, Interview Status"
 section in the ICPSR codebook for this American Housing Survey, as
 well as Appendix B in CURRENT HOUSING REPORTS, 1998, for each
metropolitan area sampled, which is included with this collection.
description: For more information about sampling, please see Appendix B
 in CURRENT HOUSING REPORTS, 1998, for each metropolitan area sampled,
which is included with this collection.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Housing Unit Record (Main Record)
DS2: Mortgages (Owners Only)
DS3: Manager and Owner Record (Renters Only)
DS4: Person Record
DS5: Ratio Verification
DS6: Mover Group Record
DS7: Recodes (One Record per Housing Unit)
DS8: Weights
description: Housing units among 15 metropolitan areas, most of which
 are consistent with the 1993 Office of Management and Budget definition
 of a metropolitan statistical area (MSA), consolidated metropolitan
 statistical area (CMSA), or primary metropolitan statistical area
(PMSA), in the United States. Smallest Geographic Unit: [Houston, TX PMSA, Birmingham, AL MSA, Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN PMSA, Boston, MA-NH CSMA, Baltimore, MD MSA, Rochester, NY MSA, San Jose, CA PMSA, Salt Lake City, UT MSA, Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL MSA, Providence-Pawtucket-Warwick, RI-MA PMSA, Oakland, CA PMSA, San Francisco-Oakland, CA PMSA, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI MSA, Washington DC-MD-VA MSA, Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA MSA]
description: face-to-face interview; telephone interview(1) Beginning in 1997, the methods of collecting and
 processing American Housing Survey (AHS) data were redesigned. All
 interviews are conducted using computer-assisted personal interviewing
 (CAPI) software, allowing new responses to some questions. Rather than
 existing as a single file, this collection consists of nine parts,
 each containing data pertaining to a specific subject-matter. In
 addition, data for building and neighborhood questions ceased to be
 collected through interviewer observation. Rather, these questions
 have been reworded for the respondents. Due to these changes, users
 are asked to use caution when comparing data prior to 1997 with data
 from 1997 forward. For further information about the redesign, please
 refer to DOCUMENTATION OF CHANGES IN THE 1997 AMERICAN HOUSING SURVEY,
 available with the data collection, AMERICAN HOUSING SURVEY, 1997:
 NATIONAL MICRODATA (ICPSR 2912). (2) Additional information about the
 American Housing Survey can be found at the HUD USER Web site
 and the 
U.S. Census Bureau Web site.