VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR
Housing Permits (LU3)

FULL MEASURE NAME
Permitted housing units

LAST UPDATED
February 2023

DESCRIPTION
Housing growth is measured in terms of the number of units that local jurisdictions permit throughout a given year. A permitted unit is a unit that a city or county has authorized for construction.

DATA SOURCE
California Housing Foundation/Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB) - https://www.cirbreport.org/
Construction Review report (1967-2022)

Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) – Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) - https://data.bayareametro.gov/Development/HCD-Annual-Progress-Report-Jurisdiction-Summary/nxbj-gfv7
Housing Permits Database (2014-2021)

Census Bureau Building Permit Survey - https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/County/
Building permits by county (annual, monthly)

CONTACT INFORMATION
vitalsigns.info@bayareametro.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator)
Bay Area housing permits data by single/multi family come from the California Housing Foundation/Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB). Affordability breakdowns from 2014 to 2021 come from the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) – Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Housing Permits Database.

Single-family housing units include detached, semi-detached, row house and town house units. Row houses and town houses are included as single-family units when each unit is separated from the adjacent unit by an unbroken ground-to-roof party or fire wall. Condominiums are included as single-family units when they are of zero-lot-line or zero-property-line construction; when units are separated by an air space; or, when units are separated by an unbroken ground-to-roof party or fire wall. Multi-family housing includes duplexes, three-to-four-unit structures and apartment-type structures with five units or more. Multi-family also includes condominium units in structures of more than one living unit that do not meet the single-family housing definition.

Each multi-family unit is counted separately even though they may be in the same building. Total units is the sum of single-family and multi-family units. County data is available from 1967 whereas city data is available from 1990. City data is only available for incorporated cities and towns. All permits in unincorporated cities and towns are included under their respective county’s unincorporated total. Permit data is not available for years when the city or town was not incorporated.

Affordable housing is the total number of permitted units affordable to low and very low income households. Housing affordable to very low income households are households making below 50% of the area median income. Housing affordable to low income households are households making between 50% and 80% of the area median income. Housing affordable to moderate income households are households making below 80% and 120% of the area median income. Housing affordable to above moderate income households are households making above 120% of the area median income.

Permit data is missing for the following cities and years:
Clayton, 1990-2007
Lafayette, 1990-2007
Moraga, 1990-2007
Orinda, 1990-2007
San Ramon, 1990

Building permit data for metropolitan areas for each year is the sum of non-seasonally adjusted monthly estimates from the Census Building Permit Survey. The Bay Area values are the sum of the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward MSA and the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA. The counties included in these areas are: San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Benito.

Permit values reflect the number of units permitted in each respective year. Note that the data columns come from difference sources. The columns (SFunits, MFunits, TOTALunits, SF_Share and MF_Share) are sourced from CIRB. The columns (VeryLowunits, Lowunits, Moderateunits, AboveModerateunits, VeryLow_Share, Low_Share, Moderate_Share, AboveModerate_Share, Affordableunits and Affordableunits_Share) are sourced from the ABAG Housing Permits Database. Due to the slightly different methodologies that exist within each of those datasets, the total units from each of the two sources might not be consistent with each other.

As shown, three different data sources are used for this analysis of housing permits issued in the Bay Area. Data from the Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB) represents the best available data source for examining housing permits issued over time in cities and counties across the Bay Area, dating back to 1967. In recent years, Annual Progress Report (APR) data collected by the California Department of Housing and Community Development has been available for analyzing housing permits issued by affordability levels. Since CIRB data is only available for California jurisdictions, the U.S. Census Bureau provides the best data source for comparing housing permits issued across different metropolitan areas. Notably, annual permit totals for the Bay Area differ across these three data sources, reflecting the limitations of needing to use different data sources for different purposes.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR
Rent Payments (EC8)

FULL MEASURE NAME
Median rent payment

LAST UPDATED
January 2023

DESCRIPTION
Rent payments refer to the cost of leasing an apartment or home and serves as a measure of housing costs for individuals who do not own a home. The data reflect the median monthly rent paid by Bay Area households across apartments and homes of various sizes and various levels of quality. This differs from advertised rents for available apartments, which usually are higher. Note that rent can be presented using nominal or real (inflation-adjusted) dollar values; data are presented inflation-adjusted to reflect changes in household purchasing power over time.

DATA SOURCE
U.S. Census Bureau: Decennial Census - https://nhgis.org
Count 2 (1970)
Form STF1 (1980-1990)
Form SF3a (2000)

U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey - https://data.census.gov/
Form B25058 (2005-2021; median contract rent)

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index - https://www.bls.gov/data/
1970-2021

CONTACT INFORMATION
vitalsigns.info@mtc.ca.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator)
Rent data reflects median rent payments rather than list rents (refer to measure definition above). American Community Survey 1-year data is used for larger geographies – Bay counties and most metropolitan area counties – while smaller geographies rely upon 5-year rolling average data due to their smaller sample sizes. Note that 2020 data uses the 5-year estimates because the ACS did not collect 1-year data for 2020.

1970 Census data for median rent payments has been imputed from quintiles using methodology from California Department of Finance as the source data only provided the mean, rather than the median, monthly rent. Metro area boundaries reflects today’s metro area definitions by county for consistency, rather than historical metro area boundaries.

Inflation-adjusted data are presented to illustrate how rent payments have grown relative to overall price increases; that said, the use of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) does create some challenges given the fact that housing represents a major chunk of consumer goods bundle used to calculate CPI. This reflects a methodological tradeoff between precision and accuracy and is a common concern when working with any commodity that is a major component of CPI itself.

TIGER 2021 city boundary fileSource: U S Census Bureau GeographyThis Map is used in the WebApp(s): CDBG Applicant Concentration 2024, Multifamily Affordable Housing Properties

The percentage of residential properties that have been classified as being vacant and abandoned by the Baltimore City Department of Housing out of all properties. Properties are classified as being vacant and abandoned if: the property is not habitable and appears boarded up or open to the elements; the property was designated as being vacant prior to the current year and still remains vacant; and the property is a multi-family structure where all units are considered to be vacant. Source: Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development Years Available: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

Analysis of ‘Zoned Development Capacity by Development Site 2020-v.1.3’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/f0977918-2c41-4bdb-97d1-eea7cab09c04 on 12 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

This dataset lists the routine and complaint inspections conducted by the County of Los Angeles Environmental Health for hotels, motels, and multi-family dwellings (e.g., apartments with 5 or more units). Los Angeles County Environmental Health is responsible for enforcing public health laws within the county's unincorporated areas and 85 of its 88 cities. This dataset does not include inspection data for the cities of Pasadena, Long Beach, and Vernon, each of which has its health departments.Data Dictionary:Field Name DescriptionACTIVITY DATE: Date of the inspectionFACILITY ID: Unique identifier of the facilityFACILITY NAME: Name of the facilityRECORD ID: Unique identifier of the health program within the facilityPROGRAM NAME: Name of the programPROGRAM STATUS: Status of the programPROGRAM ELEMENT: Code identifying the type of programPE DESCRIPTION: Description of the program elementFACILITY ADDRESS: Address of the facilityFACILITY CITY: City of the facilityFACILITY STATE: State of the facilityZIP: Zip code of the facilityGIS LATITUDE: Latitude coordinates of the facilityGIS LONGITUDE: Longitude coordinates of the facilitySERVICE CODE: Code identifying the type of inspectionSERVICE DESCRIPTION: Description of the service codeSERIAL NUMBER: Unique identifier for each inspectionAPN: Parcel number for the property address• Each row represents one inspection result.• The serial number is the primary key to link to their associated violation(s) provided in the Environmental Health Housing Violations dataset

This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (11 items: Canada; Prince Edward Island; Nova Scotia; Newfoundland and Labrador ...), Housing estimates (3 items: Housing starts; Housing under construction; Housing completions ...), Type of unit (6 items: Total units; Semi-detached; Single-detached; Multiples ...).

Data collected as part of the City of Melbourne's Census of Land Use and Employment (CLUE). The data covers the period 2002-2023. The dwelling data is based on the Council's property rates database, using a simplified classification schema of Residential Apartment, House/Townhouse and Student Apartment. The count of dwellings per residential building is shown.

For more information about CLUE see http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/clue