Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:
“VHDA regularly conducts analyses of housing market and demographic trends impacting housing needs in the Commonwealth. These analytical assessments assist us in our organizational strategic and program planning. They also provide data that can assist broader state housing policy-making activities, and the activities of other housing stakeholders.”
This data is not appropriate for our project because it is not based on specific housing properties. I believe all of the housing data from these reports (the link to which is provided above) comes from the Census or the ACS and, when I went back a week later to try to look at the reports again, I was not able to access the reports. I tried calling VHDA, and I could not get ahold of them.
Therefore, from what I read on their website, I will assume they do not have property or housing unit level data. Furthermore, from my notes from when I was able to access the reports, I wrote down that the data was not collected consistently, and that there was only some data for 2013. Hence, these two question are not 'checked' in the screening questions.
VHDA does issue reports about their lending practices, but this did not seem to be something we would be interested in obtaining. Therefore, for the purposes of this inventory, I will be focusing on the Census and ACS housing data they use.
Link: http://www.vhda.com/about/Planning-Policy/Pages/VHDAHousingAnalysis.aspx#.VV-INk9Vikr
Date Inventory Completed: 6/2/2015
Screening
- Is the data collected opinion-based?
- Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
- Is there data available for 2013?
- Is the data collected at the property or housing unit level?
- Can we access the data by August 15th?
Purpose
What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?
“VHDA is a self-supporting, not-for-profit organization created by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1972, to help Virginians attain quality, affordable housing. VHDA provides mortgages, primarily for first-time homebuyers and developers of quality rental housing. We use no state taxpayer dollars, but raise money in the capital markets to fund our loans.”
Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?
VHDA collects the data for its own lending purposes (the data “assists them in their organizational strategic and program planning”), and these “analytical assessments” “also provide data that can assist broader state housing policy-making activities and the activities of other housing stakeholders.”
Who else uses the data?
Policy-makers and potentially businesses. Citizens and researchers could also use the data.
Who do they sell the data to? (e.g., Zillow for individual homeowners; CoreLogic for multiple uses, primarily business; Chief Economists at trade associations)
They do not sell the data.
Method
What is the data collection method?
Since I believe the data is mostly Census and ACS, the collection method would be surveys.
What is the type of data collected?
The Census and ACS data is collected via designed collection procedures.
If designed, who created the questions?
Government
What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)?
Surveys filled out by participants.
Description
What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?
ACS/Census Housing Data
What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?
Unknown; when I went back to fill out this longer ‘short form,’ I could not access the reports.
Timeliness
Is data collected and available periodically?
Unknown.
How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided?
Unknown
Selectivity
What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?
The ACS/Census Data would be taken from the entire US.
Accessibility
How is the data accessed?
PDF (might also be downloadable in Excel format)
Is it open data?
Unclear. It was accessible last week but, now, when I try to access it, I get a message that says “401 UNAUTHORIZED.” I checked on someone else’s computer as well, and the same message came up.
Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?
Unclear.
Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?
Unclear
Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? No
Explanation: These data do not meet our needs as there has been some trouble accessing the reports that use them. In addition, the data comes mostly from the Census/ACS.