1999 AHS Data

Download the 1999 National AHS Data Update (revised 11/22/02). This file is 726 KB in size and expands to 2.9 MB. (*.exe, 726 KB)

Download the 1999 National AHS data ASCII version (revised 11/14/02). This file is approximately 23 mb in size and expands to 296 mb. (*.exe, 15,848 KB)

Q Code for the 1999 AHS, providing the background computer code for the Survey (*.exe, 273 KB).

Download the 1999 National AHS documentation (revised 11/22/02) (*.exe, 328 KB).

Income limits, poverty levels, fair market rents, and median incomes for FY99 (revised 02/05/03) (*.exe, 1,145 KB).

Information on how the Census Bureau recoded AHS data for the publication tables (*.txt, 77 KB)

Changes in the 1999 National survey:

Income--Income was collected for all people in the household age 16 and older. In previous surveys, income was collected for all people in the household with members age 14 and older.

Lodgers--Lodger questions were no longer asked of adult relatives. In addition, the age cutoff was changed from 14 years of age or older to 16 years of age or older.

Public Elementary Schools--In 1997 the question on type of school attended was asked of households with children ages 4 to 16. In 1999, the question was asked of households with children ages 5 to 15. The answer category "does not attend school" was replaced with "schooled at home." However, instructions to the field representative defined both answer categories as the same, meaning children who did not attend school were entered in to the "schooled at home" category.

Year householder moved into unit--In 1999, a change was made in the way these data were processed. The change allows the year the householder moved in to be earlier than the year the structure was built for mobile homes. The change was made in order to accommodate mobile home householders who purchased a new mobile home but were still living in the same site, making the year their structure was built later than the year they moved in.

Rooms used for business--Errors in the computer program for the laptop computer in 1997 were corrected in 1999.

Reasons for leaving previous unit--There was an error in the computer program for the laptop in 1997. As a result, data for the categories "private displacement' and "government displacement" were not collected. This error was corrected in 1999.

Flush toilet breakdown--There was an error in the computer program for the laptop in 1997. As a result, data on flush toilet breakdowns were not collected. This error was corrected in 1999.

Rooms in unit--In 1999, the collection of rooms counts by floors was eliminated. Room counts of each type were collected for the housing units as a whole. Also, a probe was modified to ensure that one-room units were not under reported. These changes resulted in higher estimates of one-room units and units with no bedrooms.

Main house heating fuel--In 1999, the type of gas (piped versus bottled) use as a main house heating fuel for vacant units was collected. In 1997, the type of gas used was inadvertently omitted from the survey.

New items--A number of new items were introduced in the 1999 survey. The items are:

• renter maintenance quality
• building and ground maintenance
• building neighbor noise
• bodies of water within 300 feet
• reason extra unit owned
• location of extra unit
• lead paint pamphlet
• nights owner spent at extra unit
• nights owner rented extra unit

Items dropped--Three items were dropped in the 1999 survey:

• adequate inside maintenance
• buildings and grounds properly maintained
• reverse mortgages