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Housing Quality – Substandard Housing

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This indicator reports the number and percentage of owner- and renter-occupied housing units having at least one of the following conditions: 1) lacking complete plumbing facilities, 2) lacking complete kitchen facilities, 3) with 1.01 or more occupants per room, 4) selected monthly owner costs as a percentage of household income greater than 30%, and 5) gross rent as a percentage of household income greater than 30%. Selected conditions provide information in assessing the quality of the housing inventory and its occupants. This data is used to easily identify homes where the quality of living and housing can be considered substandard.

Source

US Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2019-23.

Source Description

The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with reliable and timely social, economic, housing, and demographic data every year. The ACS has an annual sample size of about 3.5 million addresses, with survey information collected nearly every day of the year. Data are pooled across a calendar year to produce estimates for that year. As a result, ACS estimates reflect data that have been collected over a period of time rather than for a single point in time as in the decennial census, which is conducted every 10 years and provides population counts as of April 1. The Census Bureau combines 5 consecutive years of ACS data to produce estimates for geographic areas with fewer than 65,000 residents. These 5-year estimates represent data collected over a period of 60 months. Because the ACS is based on a sample, rather than all housing units and people, ACS estimates have a degree of uncertainty associated with them, called sampling error. In general, the larger the sample, the smaller the level of sampling error. Data users should be careful in drawing conclusions about small differences between two ACS estimates because they may not be statistically different.

Citation: U.S. Census Bureau: UNDERSTANDING AND USING AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY DATA: WHAT ALL DATA USERS NEED TO KNOW (2018).

For more information about this source, including data collection methodology and definitions, refer to the American Community Survey data user’s website.

Methodology

Counts of housing units by age and condition are acquired from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Data represent estimates for the 5-year period 2019-2023. Mapped data are summarized to 2023 census tract boundaries. Area estimates are developed at the U.S. Census Bureau, and given as a value for each geographic area. Raw counts are not provided, inhibiting the ability to produce median ages for report areas.

For more information on the data reported in the American Community Survey, please see the complete American Community Survey 2023 Subject Definitions.

Data Breakouts Available

  • Substandard Housing: Households Lacking Complete Kitchen Facilities
  • Substandard Housing: Households Lacking Telephone Service
  • Substandard Housing: Households Lacking Complete Plumbing Facilities
  • Substandard Housing: Number of Substandard Conditions Present, Percentage of Total Occupied Housing Units
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