The 2001 Residential Finance Survey
The 2001 Residential Finance Survey (RFS) was sponsored by
the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and
conducted by the Census Bureau. The RFS is a follow-on survey
to the 2000 decennial census designed to collect, process,
and produce information about the financing of all nonfarm,
residential properties. Previous RF surveys have been integral
parts of the decennial censuses since 1950. Primary users
of RFS data in addition to HUD include the Bureau of Economic
Analysis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Congress. Data
are collected, tabulated, and presented for properties, the
standard unit of reference for financial transactions related
to housing. In the RFS, a property is defined as all the buildings
and land covered by a single first mortgage. The sample for
the RFS is stratified by property size, with large properties
overrepresented in the sample. Very large properties are
selected with certainty to control their effect on the reliability
of the estimates. The RFS is the only standardized single
source of detailed information on property, mortgage, and
financial characteristics for multiunit properties. Both
property owners and mortgage lenders are interviewed, resulting
in more accurate information on property and mortgage characteristics.
As part of the decennial census, the RFS is mandatory. This
is important in collecting information from mortgage lenders.
Facsimiles of the homeowner, rental property and lender questionnaires;
a glossary of terms and definitions; a listing of frequently
asked questions; and other information about the survey can
be found at the following sites:
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/rfs/facs.html
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/rfs/rfs.html
Residential Finance Survey: 2001 Report Is Now Available.
The main purpose of the survey was to collect information about
mortgage financing. The report contains information for all
first mortgages including: application method, reasons for refinancing,
amounts and uses of cash-outs, year of origination, use of mortgage
insurance or guarantees, type of mortgage, origination amounts
and current balance, interest rate, interest rate buydowns,
original and remaining term of the mortgage, indexes and caps
used for ARMs, and items included in and amounts of monthly
payments. Similar, but less detailed, information is reported
for junior mortgages and home equity lines of credit. The report
chapters are organized by tenure – owner-occupied,
rental, and vacant units – and by number of units in the
property. There are separate chapters for condominiums and for
manufactured (mobile) homes. Appendices to the report include
facsimiles of the questionnaires, sample design and sampling
errors, content descriptions and definitions, and data processing
procedures. The report is available for free as a downloadable
PDF document from either the HUD
Internet site or Census
Internet site. In addition to the tables for the nation
and the four Census regions included in the report, additional
tables for more detailed geographical areas are available on
the Census Internet site. Printed
(or hard) copies of the report are available from HUDUSER.ORG
(800-245-2691) or from the Census Bureau Customer Service Center
(301-763-4636).
1991 RFS Files and Documentation
Homeowner File, Public Use ASCII
Version (5.5 MB)
Rental File, Public Use ASCII Version
(7.6 MB)
Micro
database File Documentation, Scanned from Hard copy (*.pdf,
4 MB)
Corrections
to the 1991 Residential Finance Survey documentation (*.pdf,
754 KB)
The RFS files and documentation are available for
downloading:
5th October, 2005:
New versions of Rental Property and Homeowner data and ascii
files are available now.
The problem involved 246 cases on the Renter file. These
cases had LIVEHERE values of 1 or 2 (owner lived at the property
as a primary residence or as a second or vacation home) and
NUMUNITS of 1 to 4. According to the rules for classifying
cases these would have been considered owner-occupied units
and should have been on the Owner file. After review, it was
determined that the LIVEHERE values were incorrect, that the
cases were rental units and the LIVEHERE values have been
corrected in the newly issued file. In addition, not all edit
flag variables (those starting with the letter"J")
had value labels, and this is corrected in the new files
Download the Rental Property
File (*.exe, 4.12 MB)
Download the Homeowner File
(*.exe, 2.41 MB)
Residential
Finance Survey: 2001
(Order hard copy.)
Comma-delimited ASCII Renters
and Vacant File (*.exe, 5.10 MB)
Comma-delimited ASCII Homeowners
File (*.exe, 3.17 MB)
Download the Renter codebook
(*.txt, 639 KB)
Download the Homeowner
codebook (*.txt, 626 KB)
Renter and Vacant Units Top-Coding Values and Cut-offs (*.xls, 20 KB)
Homeowners Units Top-Coding
Values and Cut-offs (*.xls, 20 KB)
Join the RFS Electronic
Mailing List
Previous Changes:
1st June, 2005: New codebooks/data
dictionaries
New codebooks/data dictionaries have been added. These codebooks
have been reformatted in order to be more useful to RFS users.
25th May, 2005
- April 22nd version of
Rental Property and Homeowner data files are available now.
- ASCII Versions of the Residential
Finance Survey Files and Top Code Information are available
now.
Residential Finance Survey — April
22, 2005 Version
The file that is being released is the first reissue since
September 2004. After that release several users discovered
cases that had suspect values for monetary items:
- Very high or very low values of mortgage debt per unit,
- High ratios of mortgage debt to value,
- Very high or very low ratios of mortgage debt to house
value
The Census Bureau has retraced these cases to the original
data collection forms and retrieved correct values.
During this time the Census Bureau also was preparing the
tables for the hard copy report. This table review also highlighted
or uncovered cases that needed correction.
The needed changes and corrections been made and are contained
in the new databases.
In the next few weeks we expect to issue a revised codebook
or data dictionary and a listing of the top-coding values
for variables that were top-coded.
Within the next six weeks we expect to issue a Source and
Accuracy write-up that would include a section on estimating
standard errors.
ASCII Versions of the Residential Finance
Survey Files and Top-Code Information
Comma-delimited ASCII versions of the two
Residential Finance Survey databases – Renters and Vacant
Units and Homeowners – are now available.
Top-coding information for the two files
is now available in an Excel spreadsheet. The information
consists of the variable name, description of the variable,
the top-code chosen (the highest respondent-reported value
on the file), the weighted mean of the cases above the top-code value (i.e., the value that replaces the respondent-reported
value if it is above the top-code amount,) and the number
of cases that have been top-coded.
Note: 21st September 2004
New RFS File Expected in Early October
A new file was just released (the September 14 vintage) that
contained corrected information for multifamily (5+) properties
originated in 2000 and 2001 that had ORIGAMT1/NUMUNITS over
$200,000. As noted at that time, we discovered about 200 other
multifamily cases (i.e., those with origination years other
than 2000 or 2001) that had ORIGAMT1/NUMUNITS over $200,000.
A list has been sent to Census and they have found numerous
cases that need to be corrected. The Census Bureau notes that
the vast majority of these problems were caused by the same
data input problems as found with the 2000 and 2001 originations
— missing trailing zeroes (decimal slides) or spurious leading
digits.
Since these cases have been identified, other possible problems
with multifamily cases have been identified (A case may appear
in more than one problem category):
- About 700 cases with excessive debt-to-value ratios, i.e.,
ORIGAMT1/ORIGVAL1 over 200%
- About 45 cases with low per-unit debt, i.e., ORIGAMT1/NUMUNITS
less than $500.
- About 52 cases with low per-unit values, i.e., ORIGVAL1/NUMUNITS
less than $500.
The Census Bureau is now checking the original input data
sources for these cases and expects to make corrections.
Once these additional cases are reviewed and corrected, we
will issue a new database. It is expected that this will occur
in about two weeks, early in October. We will issue an email
at that time.
We expect to continue updating the files as users report
issues to us and as we uncover possible problems as the final
report tables are programmed and reviewed. So users should
be sure that they are using the most recent file.
14th September, 2004
Editing of the RFS microdata base continues as the Census
Bureau is preparing the software and programs for generating
the multivariate tables that will form the body of the final
hardcopy (and Internet) versions of the 2001 Residential Finance
Survey report. We had released the database as early as possible
and expected to be uncovering problems as the Census Bureau
reviews draft tables, and as users report to us possible problems
they have encountered. We have already issued a revised version
in response to users concerns. The Census Bureau will continue
to respond to users concerns until the final tables are prepared.
At that point, we would expect that almost all errors will
have been identified through table review or user input.
Last week, a user alerted us to some unusual values for ORIGAMT1
for multifamily ( MF 5+) properties that were originated in
2000 and 2001. The> focus was on MF cases with ORIGAMT1/NUMUNITS
over $200,000. There were 22 cases for 2001 originations and
40 cases for 2000 originations. The Census Bureau traced these
values back to the original questionnaires or electronic data
submissions and found that many of the problems were caused
by decimal slides or by spurious leading digits. These cases
are now being corrected and a new data file should be posted
in the next few days.
As a follow-up to these problems, the Census Bureau is now
looking at all MF originations with high origination values
per units, i.e., ORIGAMT1/NUMUNITS > $200,000. If needed,
a new database will be issued if these values need to be
changed. Furthermore, editing will continue as part of the
process of generating the final report so it is possible that
other versions of the file will be released in the future.
26th July, 2004 - A new version of
Rental Property and Homeowner data files are available now.
The new versions of the files correct the following problems
or concerns:
- All the dollar variables are top-coded using a weighted
mean.
The Census Bureau has responded to user concerns and has
revised the files accordingly. They will continue to look
at issues that surface as the files are used, so changes might
be implemented in the future.
21st July, 2004 - Changes on Rental
Property and Homeowner data files.
The new versions of the files correct the following problems
or concerns:
- For Renter units with 5 or more units and origination
years of 2001 there has been a change to assigning values
for mortgage balances (MGTBAL1, MGTBAL2 and MGTBAL3) when
the balances were not reported. In earlier versions of the
files, values were allocated or assigned to these cases
using a random assignment method, i.e., hot deck. In this
version, the mortgage values were calculated based on other
information on the file (interest rate, term, and payment).
This will, hopefully, restore some balance to the relationship
between original mortgage amount and current mortgage balance
for 2001 originations for properties with five or more units.
- In this revision, the values for year acquired will be
in single-year increments for properties acquired in 1990
and later years. This was supposed to have been done in
the last revision, but was not.
16th July, 2004 - Changes on Rental
Property, Homeowner data and documentation files.
- Data file changes: The variable
YRACQ on both datasets is being rounded to the nearest 5
for years earlier than 1990. The years 1990 and above are
left as they came in, i.e., single years. There were three
rental property records that had bad ORIGAMT1 or MTGBAL1.
They have been fixed.
- Documentation file changes: The
formatting has been revised to allow more spacing between
variables, and some typos have been corrected.
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