The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has released the public use dataset from the 2009 American Housing Survey (AHS) national sample. The dataset provides information at the level of individual housing units and includes enhanced samples of five metropolitan areas: Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, and Northern New Jersey. For the first time, the AHS also includes data on the disability status of household members. The 2009 AHS also included two independent metropolitan surveys, of New Orleans and Seattle. The New Orleans survey included special questions concerning the residents’ experiences during and after Hurricane Katrina. HUD expects to release the New Orleans data in August, 2010 and the Seattle data by October 2010. Read More…