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Housing Affordabilty
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What kind of data is found in "Who Can Afford to Buy a House"?
- How did you collect data for the report?
- Can I get housing affordability data for my city?
- Can I get affordability data for 1997?
- Can you tell me how many people can afford to buy a house
if they lower the closing costs or interest rates go up?
1. What kind of data is found in "Who Can Afford to Buy a House"?
The "Who Can Afford to Buy a House?" report includes data on the
ability of families and individuals to qualify for the purchase
of a home using either conventional financing or FHA-insured
financing. The data are tabulated for several different priced
houses, by age, race, sex, family type, income, and reasons why
they could not afford to buy a home.
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2. How did you collect data for the report?
Data is collected from both current property owners and renters
about their income sources, their financial and property assets,
and their liabilities. The data comes from the Survey of Income
and Program Participation (SIPP). The survey does not ask whether
the household plans to buy a home; the report uses the data to
determine whether they could afford to buy a house based on the
data collected in SIPP.
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3. Can I get housing affordability data for my city?
The SIPP is a national survey, designed to describe household
financial data for the entire country only. There are enough
cases in the survey to tabulate the four Census regions
(Northeast, Midwest, South, and West); the nine Census Divisions;
and by inside and outside metro areas and in central cities or
not in central cities.
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4. Can I get affordability data for 1997?
The SIPP modules for household financial data is collected only
every other year. We have tabulated affordability data for 1984,
1988, and 1991, 1993, and 1995. The next time this report may be
available will be for data from 1997. There is about a two year
lag between the time the data is collected and the report on
affordability is tabulated.
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5. Can you tell me how many people can afford to buy a house
if they lower the closing costs or interest rates go up?
The report includes data on the effect of changes in interest
rates, down payment subsidies, and changes in required down
payment for both conventional and FHA-insured loans. The data is
presented such that you can see the effects on different types of
families if any of these aspects of the home buying process are
modified.
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Contact the Demographic Call Center Staff at 301-763-2422 or 1-866-758-1060 (toll free) or visit
ask.census.gov for further information on Housing Affordability Data.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division
Last Revised: October 05, 2005
