| Using American Community Survey Data in HUD’s Income Limits and Fair Market Rents
Kurt Usowski
Lynn Rodgers
Marie Lihn
Peter Kahn
Policy Briefs
The Policy Briefs department summarizes a change or trend in national policy that may have escaped the attention of researchers. The purpose is to stimulate the analysis of policy in the field while the policy is being implemented and thereafter..
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is required to base its Income Limits and Fair Market Rents (FMRs) on the “most recent data available.” The release of the 2005 American Community Survey (ACS) data posed several challenges for including these survey data in the estimation of these program parameters. This article discusses how HUD uses 2005 ACS data to establish Income Limits and FMRs. HUD encourages researchers to evaluate HUD’s current use of the data and provide suggestions for incorporating the use of ACS data for smaller areas, when available, into these estimates.
|