FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2000 Public Information Office CB00-146 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-1037 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov Jane Kneessi 301-457-3235 Census Bureau Releases Housing Data for the Nation and Selected Metropolitan Areas The Commerce Department's Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development today released on the Internet data from the 1999 American Housing Survey for the nation and the 1998 American Housing Survey for 15 metropolitan areas. Topics include neighborhood satisfaction and crime, street noise or traffic conditions, total number of housing units, median age of homes, rooms per unit, monthly housing costs, median household income and median value of occupied housing units. The metropolitan areas are: Baltimore, Md. Oakland, Calif. Birmingham, Ala. Providence-Pawtucket-Warwick, R.I.-Mass. Boston, Mass.-N.H. Rochester, N.Y. Cincinnati, Ohio-Ky.-Ind. Salt Lake City, Utah Houston, Texas San Francisco, Calif. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.-Wis. San Jose, Calif. Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. News, Va. Washington, D.C.-Md.-Va. The data were released via the Federal Electronic Research and Review Extraction Tool (FERRET http://ferret.bls.census.gov/cgi-bin/ferret), which allows users to compare different data sets, create simple tables and download large data files to desktop and larger computers to develop custom reports. Printed versions will be available over the next two months. Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error.