Housing Affordability – An Art of the Possible Use Case to Develop the 21st Century Census Curated Data Enterprise

There is a growing appetite for timelier and more granular data. Surveys, which have long been a bedrock of data provided by the federal government, are experiencing challenges such as low response rates and lag times in release. However, the increasing amounts of data available presents opportunities to tackle the nation’s issues. The 21st Century Census Curated Data Enterprise (CDE) is a proposed shift away from relying on individual surveys and towards the re-use and integration of multiple data sources in order to produce more timely and geographically granular statistical products. Rather than starting with individual surveys and producing products based on these surveys, we propose starting stakeholder questions that provide the context for the statistical product creation.

Because practical applications are the focus of the CDE, we propose the development of the CDE through Use Cases. This report is an Art of the Possible Use Case, which explores the feasibility of performing Demonstration Use Cases on housing affordability. A Demonstration Use Case is an implementation of statistical product development that illuminates the capabilities needed to develop and deploy the CDE. We conclude that there are several areas of housing affordability that could be developed into statistical products and provide a starting point for Demonstration Use Cases on the topic. Throughout the report, we highlight the importance of housing affordability, provide a landscape of the housing affordability literature, introduce the reader to available data sources and data gaps, and emphasize areas where data integration could be helpful.

Housing affordability makes for a logical Use Case. It is an important topic, as housing is widely acknowledged as a basic need and the nation experiences a shortage of affordable housing. The issues surrounding housing affordability are complex. A confluence of factors has led to a shortage of affordable housing and the large number of households experiencing high housing cost burdens. The factors are organized by three types: governance, shock events, and economics. Governance includes factors such as exclusionary zoning that has limited where high-density affordable housing can be built (for example, see Ikeda and Washington (2015). Other governance factors include Not In My Backyard sentiments and underfunding of housing assistance programs. Economic factors include wage stagnation and income inequality; local, state, and federal policy, including exclusionary zoning and the underfunding of housing assistance programs. Shock events such as 2007-2008 Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Given this complexity, housing affordability is a topic that would benefit from the integration of multiple data sources, both survey and administrative data.

The Appendix includes a list of housing and housing-related data sources.

Wu E, Salvo J, Lancaster V, Stephanie S. Housing Affordability – An Art of the Possible Use Case to Develop the 21st Century Census Curated Data Enterprise, Technical Report BI-2023-262. Proceedings of the Biocomplexity Institute, University of Virginia; 2023 October. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18130/qgkd-va29.