Census, HUD Expand Access to Housing Survey Results

The results of the ""Census Bureau's"":http://www.census.gov/ and ""HUD's"":http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD ""American Housing Survey"":http://www.census.gov/housing/ahs/ are now available for the first time ever via the Census' American FactFinder data access tool, the agencies announced Thursday.

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The survey covers a wide range of topics, including housing problems, householder's satisfaction with home and neighborhood, purchase price and type of mortgage, and socio-economic characteristics of the householder.

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Statistics are provided on the national level for apartments, single-family homes, manufactured housing, new construction, and vacant housing units.

Among the findings from the 2011 survey:

* Seventy-one percent of survey respondents rate their homes highly (ratings of eight to 10), with 29 percent giving their homes the ""best"" rating of 10. Residents of new construction tend to rate their homes even more highly, with 84 percent giving a rating above eight and 46 percent rating their homes as a 10.

* On average, households pay $927 per month (24 percent of their household income) for housing. The cost is higher for residents of new construction, with median cost being $1,340 per month.

* More than a fifth--21 percent--of all primary mortgage holders reported a change in their monthly payment in the last 12 months. The main reason for their payment change was because of a change in property taxes or homeowners insurance (71 percent).

Other detailed findings can be found at the ""American FactFinder page"":http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/searchresults.xhtml?refresh=t.