Reference

Data Sources

The CommunityScale Housing Forecast integrates data from multiple federal and commercial sources. Each source is ingested through automated pipelines, transformed into a consistent geographic and temporal framework, and stored in a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database for use across all forecast modules.

U.S. Census Bureau

American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates

  • Coverage: 2010-2023 (14 survey years)
  • Geography: All geographies with population ≥ 65,000; PUMA-level for microdata
  • Update Frequency: Annual release

Key Tables:

TableDescription
B01001Sex by Age
B09021Living Arrangements of Adults
B11015Households by Type
B19001Household Income (16 bins)
B19013Median Household Income
B19113Median Family Income
B19131Family Income with Family Type
B25001Housing Units
B25002Occupancy Status
B25003Tenure
B25010Average Household Size
B25024Units in Structure
B25032Tenure by Units in Structure
B25034Year Structure Built
B25041Bedrooms
B25042Housing Units by Bedroom Count and Tenure
B25074Renter Cost Burden by Income
B25082Aggregate Value (Owner-Occupied)
B25090Aggregate Selected Monthly Owner Costs
B25095Owner Cost Burden by Income
B07013Mobility by Tenure

ACS Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS)

  • Coverage: 2010-2023 5-Year PUMS (multiple vintages)
  • Files: Household and person microdata
  • Weights: WGTP (household), PWGTP (person), WGTP1-WGTP80 (replicate weights)
  • Key variables: HINCP, ADJINC, TEN, BDSP, MV, GRNTP, SMOCP, GRPIP, OCPIP
  • Purpose: Household composition ratios, WTP distributions, income distributions, mover identification

TIGER/Line Shapefiles

  • Vintage: 2023
  • Layers: State, County, County Subdivision, Place, Census Tract, PUMA, CBSA, ZCTA
  • Format: PostGIS geometry in PostgreSQL database

PUMA Geography Crosswalks

Census Bureau allocation factors (AFACT) for consistent geographic definitions across decennial boundaries (2000, 2010, 2020 PUMAs).

HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)

Income Limits Data

  • Years: 2010-2025
  • Content: Area Median Income and income limit thresholds
  • Household Sizes: 1-8 persons
  • Thresholds: Extremely Low (30% AMI), Very Low (50% AMI), Low (80% AMI), Median (100% AMI)
  • Source: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/il.html

LEHD LODES (U.S. Census Bureau)

Workplace Area Characteristics (WAC)

  • Coverage: 2002-present
  • Geography: Census block (block-level job counts at the workplace location)
  • Use: Job-count totals and job counts by NAICS-derived sector (cns01-cns20), aggregated to state, county, place, county subdivision, and CBSA via the block-to-geo crosswalk
  • Sector groupings:
    • Knowledge sector: cns09-cns14
    • Blue collar: cns01-cns05, cns08
    • Service sector: cns06, cns07, cns17-cns19
    • Eds, meds & public: cns15, cns16, cns20

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)

  • Coverage: Most recent annual vintage
  • Geography: MSA (CBSA-level wage estimates) plus a national total
  • Use: Local-wage percentiles (p25, p50, p75) for a curated set of 12 occupations, resolved to each geoid via county FIPS → CBSA. Geographies outside any MSA fall back to the national OEWS series.

Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED)

Mortgage Rates

  • Series: MORTGAGE30US
  • Description: 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average
  • Frequency: Weekly
  • Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey

Per Capita Income Growth

  • Purpose: Income extrapolation and inflation adjustment
  • Frequency: Annual

Commercial Data

Home Value Index

  • Series: Middle-tier Single-Family and Condo (33rd-67th percentile)
  • Smoothing: Seasonally adjusted, smoothed
  • Frequency: Monthly
  • Geography: County, County Subdivision, Place

Property Insurance Rates

  • Aggregation: ZIP code level aggregated to Census geographies
  • Content: Average annual property insurance rates

Inflation Adjustment

All income and cost values are adjusted to a common year using ADJINC and ADJHSG factors from PUMS data.

Previous
Geographic layers
Next
Glossary