American Housing Survey

Survey Design and Sample Size

The AHS is actually two surveys, composed of a national survey and a survey of metropolitan areas.

The national survey is conducted biennially for housing units selected from the 1980 Census of Housing and from housing units constructed since 1980 and obtained from a sample of building permits. The 2009 national survey used a combination of computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) by field representatives. The national sample consisted of 55,800 housing units.

The 2009 metropolitan survey included seven metropolitan areas. For five of the metropolitan areas (Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Northern New Jersey, and New York City), a total of 6,314 housing units were added to the 55,800 housing units in the national sample.

For the two other metropolitan areas, the 2009 metropolitan survey used two samples independent of the national sample. These two were Seattle (6,200 housing units) and New Orleans (4,900 housing units).

The metropolitan survey has undergone wide swings in coverage in response to budgetary pressures. As of mid-2011, the plan was to survey [Page 20]60 metropolitan areas over a 4-year cycle, with 30 covered in each odd-numbered year. The metropolitan sample will be integrated with the national sample to produce a single public use file (PUF).

Historical Background

Interviewing for the first national survey was done in 1973, with a sample size of 60,000 housing units. In 1974, the sample size was increased by 16,000 rural units; these units were dropped from the 1981 sample because of budget constraints but were reinstated for the 1983 survey. The survey was conducted annually from 1973 to 1981; then it became biennial because of budget constraints. The national sample was redesigned in 1985 based on data from the 1980 census, with a base sample size of approximately 47,000 units and rotating supplemental samples of approximately 6,000 to 9,000 units. The national survey instrument was redesigned in 1997, transforming it from paper-and-pencil to CAPI. In 2005, an additional sample was added to cover housing units in assisted-living facilities, and the manufactured housing sample was renewed with addresses drawn from the 2000 decennial census.

...