Survey focuses on housing costs in 25 major cities

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau on Jan. 6 released the results of a national housing survey focusing on 25 major metropolitan areas across the country.

The 2015 American Housing Survey data by metro area provides detailed information on monthly housing costs, hunger, and neighborhood characteristics including crime and the prevalence of rodents and cockroaches, according to a HUD news release. The national report, which focused on nationwide data, was released in November.

The survey covers a variety of housing topics, including the composition and quality of the nation’s housing inventory, mortgages and other housing costs, and neighborhood conditions. For the first time in its 42-year history, the American Housing Survey included questions on food security status, the release stated.

According to the release, some of the survey’s findings include:

• Households living in the metros areas of Los Angeles and Miami reported spending 30% of their monthly income on housing costs while families living in Houston, Atlanta, Detroit and Seattle spend 21%. Families living in the metro area of Portland spend 23% of their monthly income on housing costs, while Pittsburgh residents spend 18%.

• New York City reported the highest percentage of households experiencing food insecurity (12.4%), whereas the Boston area had the lowest percentage of the largest metro areas at 5.4%.

• 38% of households in the Houston metro area reported the most sightings of cockroaches in their homes within the last 12 months while Seattle residents report less than 1%.

• 11% of households in the Los Angeles area report their neighborhood has a lot of serious crime compared with only 4.5% in the Atlanta area.

The American Housing Survey is sponsored by HUD and conducted every other year by the Census Bureau. The latest metropolitan areas survey was conducted in the summer and fall of 2015 and included a representative samples of homes in the 15 largest metropolitan areas and 10 additional large metropolitan areas. For detailed summaries of both national and metro area data and tables, click here.