Census & PolicyMap: Predominant Housing

Description:

PolicyMap calculated predominant tenure using Census’ American Community Survey estimates to identify whether most occupied housing units in a given geography are owner-occupied or renter-occupied.

For race and ethnicity breakdowns, the measures are calculated separately for occupied housing units with householders who identify as Hispanic or Latino, and for the following seven Census racial groups reported alone: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Some Other Race, and Two or More Races (Tables B25003A–I). For example, “Predominant Tenure – Asian” indicates whether owner-occupied or renter-occupied units are more common among occupied housing units with a householder who is Asian.

Predominant tenure demographics rankings, calculated across all occupied housing units, show the racial and ethnic composition within the overall predominant tenure category for each geography.

Data are sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Tables B25003 and B25003A–I). At PolicyMap, predominance is determined by ranking the percentage of owner-occupied and renter-occupied households within a given geography; the category with the higher percentage is reported as predominant.

Percent change compares the count of occupied housing units in the predominant tenure category between two ACS 5-year periods. It is only calculated when the same tenure type remains predominant across both periods, since counts of owner-occupied and renter-occupied units cannot be directly compared when the predominant category shifts. The measure calculates the growth or decline in the number of owner-occupied or renter-occupied units within a stable tenure category over time. It also indicates if the predominant housing tenure type has flipped, when owner- and renter-occupied units are tied, or when a racial or ethnic group is newly measurable or falls below the minimum threshold. A suppression threshold of 50 occupied housing units is applied to reduce noise and ensure more reliable comparisons across geographies and racial and ethnic groups. Migration for race and ethnicity groups is only flagged when there were at least 50 occupied housing units with householders in a given or previous time frame, to avoid overestimating and to account for margins of error in the data.