American Housing Survey Introduction to the Data

AHS Census data Data Description is in the Folders Survey information available from 1974 through 1999 –micro sample available for 1997 and 1999 through FERRET

AHS Total Inventory and Vacant Units –Central cities –Suburbs –Outside MSAs

AHS Variables –Introductory Characteristics –Height and Condition of Building –Size of Unit and Lot –Selected Equipment and Plumbing –Fuels –Housing and Neighborhood Quality –Financial Characteristics

AHS weighted to account for sampling and other errors 58,400 interviews

Getting Person Data Administrative Data Characteristics of the Occupants Income Data Respondent’s Opinion of the Neighborhood and Unit

Getting Person Data See handout for individual variables to select Save codebook Save format

Getting Person Data Use winzip to open the zipped data file load it into Excel –separate the columns Save as a text file close Excel

Get Person Data Open Stata set mem set matsize insheet using “c:\your file name”

Examine the Data Describe command Non-numeric Variables Missing Values Codebook: – customcodebk_person.htm

Recoding Variables Strings –litter takes values of B or missing –gen trash=0 –replace trash=1 if litter==“B” Categorical –Race: 5 races plus 4 other categories –gen black=0 –replace black=1 if race==2

Recoding Variables Span: hispanic if 1, other is 2, and 4 other categories gen hisp=0 replace hisp=1 if span==1

Variable labels Want to always be sure what the variables measure, units, etc. Label var varname “description” –label var black “1 if race is listed as black, o otherwise” –label var trash “1 if litter in neighborhood, 0 otherwise”