The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau released the results of the 2015 American Housing Survey, focusing on 25 metropolitan areas across the country. The data released includes detailed information on everything from monthly housing costs, hunger and neighborhood characteristics including crime and the prevalence of rodents and cockroaches.
For the first time in its 42-year history, the American Housing Survey included questions on food security status, which allowed HUD to assign households a “food security status” score. Using these categories, households were classified as having “low” or “very low” food security, which is commonly known as being “food insecure.”
Households living in the metros areas of Los Angeles and Miami report spending 30 percent of their monthly income on housing costs, while families living in Houston, Atlanta, Detroit and Seattle spend 21 percent. Families living in the metro area of Portland, Ore., spend 23 percent while Pittsburgh residents spend 18 percent of their monthly income on housing costs.
In 2015, approximately 901,000 households (12.4 percent) in the New York City metro area were experiencing food insecurity while more than 100,000 families (5.4 percent) living in the Boston area were experiencing the lowest food insecurity in the metro areas.
Almost 16 percent of households in Detroit reported the most exposure to first-hand tobacco inside their home, while San Francisco reported the least at 4.6 percent.
Nearly 17 percent of households in the Boston metro area reported signs of mice or rats in their home within the last 12 months and Phoenix residents reported significantly less at 3.4 percent. Thirty-eight percent of households in the Houston metro area reported the most sightings of cockroaches in their home within the last 12 months while Seattle residents reported less than 1 percent.
Eleven percent of households in the Los Angeles area reported their neighborhood has a lot of serious crime, while Atlanta area households reported 4.5 percent. Approximately 26 percent of residents in the Los Angeles area reported a lot of petty crime in their neighborhood, while Washington D.C. area households reported nearly 14 percent.
The latest AHS metropolitan areas survey was conducted in the summer and fall of 2015 and included a nationally representative sample of homes, as well as a representative samples of homes in the 15 largest metropolitan areas and 10 additional large metropolitan areas.