2008 American Community Survey Released

If you haven’t heard yet or if perhaps you've forgotten, new Census data in the form of the American Community Survey gives covered areas a fresh look at socio-economic and demographic characteristics each year. The Austin American-Statesman's article, "State's rate of uninsured was highest in the nation, census shows," covers some of this new data released today.

Not all of the American Community Survey data was released today. Most of the single year estimates covering areas with 65,000 or more were released, however, certain economic data covering poverty, food stamp recipients, and family income are being held back until September 29th due to some errors. And all three year estimates for areas of 20,000 or more will be released on October 27th.

To mark this release, we’ve put together a couple of examples comparing single year estimates for the Austin metro region. For more about this Census release, visit their press release.

Median Household Income
The median household income for the Austin metro area has been increasing over the past few years according to the ACS estimates. The data in the chart below shows both the estimate (in blue) and the upper and lower confidence interval (in yellow) from 2005 - 2008. Although the increase from 2006 to 2007 appears to be significant (about $2,500), it is important to note that the increase was still within the margin of error in the survey. But looking over several years of ACS data, the trend does show a statistically significant increase in the Median Household Income. For example, the lower confidence interval for 2008 is higher than the upper confidence interval for 2006. Data is inflation adjusted to 2008 dollars.

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Median Home Value
Likewise, the median home value (median value of owner occupied housing units) is also on a steady upward trend from 2005 to 2008. Despite the fact that the ACS estimate in 2006 was lower than the 2005 estimate, the change was still well within the margin of error of the survey. However, the increase from 2006 to 2007 was greater than the margin of error.

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Median Gross Rent

It is also not surprising that the median gross rent has been on the increase as well. The increase from 2005 to 2006 was greater than the margin of error. And overall, the median gross rent is at least $40 higher in 2008 than it was in 2005 (inflation was adjusted).

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Below is a distribution of renter occupied housing units by gross rent category. There is a definite increase in the number of renters in certain categories such as $1,000 to $1,249, but it is a little difficult to quantify the change occurring because it is impossible to adjust the data for inflation beyond the adjustment that the Census Bureau does to the current year of the estimate. It is likely that a lot of the change is due to new units in those price categories.

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Stay tuned for future ACS releases.

Chris Ramser