Finding Data & Statistics: Urban Planning & Housing

Urban & Regional Economics

SANDAG Open Data Portal
This San Diego county website links to data on population characteristics, such as demographics and employment, as well as transportation and crime statistics, land use, and population and employment estimates and forecasts.

PolicyMap This link opens in a new window
Note: Institution-wide access ends 6/30/25. PolicyMap is a U.S. national data and mapping tool that combines a curated, comprehensive geographic data library with simple, robust mapping and analytics tools. University faculty, researchers, and students use it to create maps of up to five layers, export trend charts with key benchmarks, download data for use in other tools, generate on-the-fly reports and upload your own data to view it with ours.
SimplyAnalytics
An easy to use mapping, analytics, and data visualization app with 100,000+ data variables, including demographic data from the US Census, and the American Community Survey (ACS), consumer spending data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX), 2020 Election Data, and D&B's Points-of-Interest business directory providing access to over 5 million US business profiles. The included MRI-SimmonsLOCAL consumer behavior dataset contains data on over 8,000 brands, 450 categories, the MOSAIC segmentation system, and detailed lifestyle information. Community Lifestages presents data based on Householder Age, Income and Household Family Status. Users also have access to the CDC PLACES health dataset which includes 27 diverse health measures, such as Health Outcomes, Prevention, Risk Behaviors, and Health Status. Data is largely available down to the block group level, and custom locations can be created. Includes EASI/MediaMark Research Incorporated (MRI) and Simmons LOCAL data packages. Data is downloadable in GIS-ready shapefiles. Users may log in as a Guest, or create an account to save their work. Access limited to 5 simultaneous users. Try again later if refused. (formerly known as SimplyMap).
Social Explorer
1790-present. This site combines data from the U.S. Census of Population and Housing & the American Community Survey (ACS) with a user friendly interface, allowing the creation of maps & statistical tables. Census Tract boundaries are available back to 1940. Now also includes data on U.S. elections, business pattern, environmental summary, health, religion, and crime; the UK and Canadian censuses; Irish religious data; World Development Indicators, and EuroStat. Presidential, senatorial, congressional and gubernatorial election data comes from Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections and is available for map presentation only.

FRED - Federal Reserve Economic Data
This website includes a range of U.S. and international economic data (price indexes, exchange rates, interest rates, GDP, trade balances, etc.). Useful features include easy browsing for U.S. regional data (states, MSAs, counties, BEA regions, Fed districts, Census divisions) and links to Liber8, the Fed's portal to current economic indicators, research and recent reports, and GeoFRED, a data-mapping tool which displays color-coded employment data on the state, MSA, and county levels.
FRED Maps (formerly GeoFRED)
Part of the Federal Reserve Economic Data website, GeoFRED is a data-mapping tool which displays color-coded employment data on the state, MSA, and county levels.

Sage Data (formerly Data-Planet)
Provides easy access to statistical data. Data is downloadable in Excel and CSV, and shapefiles when multiple geographies are covered. Sources include: Bombay Stock Exchange, British Bankers' Association, Chicago Board Options, Exchange, China Data Center, D&B (Dun & Bradstreet), Dave Leip's Atlas of US Presidential Elections, Defense Manpower Data Center, Deutsche Börse Group, Dow Jones, Easy Analytic Software Inc. (EASI), Eurostat, FTSE Group, HSI Services Limited (Hong Kong), International Monetary Fund, London Bullion Market Association , London Platinum & Palladium Market, NASDAQ OMX Group, National Bureau of Economic Research, Nikkei, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Standard & Poor's, World Bank, World Resource Institute, Sharadar, and many US Federal agencies. See Sage's Sage Data LibGuide for more detail. If you are having trouble connecting, check the status page to see if Sage Data is down.
UCLA Anderson Forecast
This long-standing quarterly publication forecasts U.S. and California economies, that strives to be unbiased in its approach. Online back to 2011, and in print back to 1997. Partner publications from this site include:
- Allen Matkins’ California Commercial Real Estate Survey (which covers San Diego and the rest of the large metro areas of California)
- City Human Capital Index (which covers Los Angeles, the Bay Area and zip codes in California),
- Los Angeles City Monthly Employment Estimate.

Interactive Census of Governments State & Local Finance Database
From Urban Institute: This interactive data tool allows for specialized searches and flexible data presentation from the Census of Governments State and Local Finance series. This series contains detailed revenue, expenditure, and debt variables for the US, each of the 50 states, and the District of Columbia from 1977 to 2016. The data are available by type of government (state, local, county, etc.), and users can view the data along five dimensions: total (in real or nominal dollars), per capita, fraction of personal income, fraction of general revenue, and fraction of total expenditures.
Cost of Living Index
From the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), the Cost of Living Index (COLI) has data available at the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level and at the county level, and organized into 6 categories: food, housing, utilities, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services, as well as a composite index. Historical COLI data files are available on the X: drive on computers in Data & GIS Lab.

Housing Statistics

American Housing Survey. DHUD
National and metropolitan statistics for apartments, single-family homes, mobile homes, vacant homes, family composition, income, housing and neighborhood quality, housing costs, equipment, fuels, size of housing unit, and recent movers. National data are collected every other year, from a fixed sample of about 50,000 homes, plus new construction each year. The survey started in 1973, and has had the same sample since 1985, letting you see homes and households changing over the years.
Building Permits Survey
This page provides data on the number of new housing units authorized by building permits. Data are available monthly, year- to- date, and annually at the national, state, selected metropolitan area, county and place levels. The data are from the Building Permits Survey.
Characteristics of New Housing
This page provides national, annual data on the characteristics of new privately-owned residential structures, such as square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, type of wall material, and sales prices. Many characteristics are available at the region level. The data are from the Survey of Construction (SOC), which is partially funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Construction Price Indexes
This page provides price indexes for single-family houses sold and for single-family houses under construction. The houses sold index incorporates the value of the land and is available quarterly at the national level and annually by region. The indexes for houses under construction are available monthly at the national level. The indexes are based on data from the Survey of Construction (SOC).
Historical housing characteristics (UC Census Bureau)
Historical housing data are provided by the U.S. Census Bureau and other agencies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae).
Housing Affordability. Census Bureau.
Find tables detailing Housing Affordability from 2004, 2002, 1995, 1993, and 1991 surveys .
Housing Patterns Tables
Residential segregation indices.
Housing Prices: New Residential Sales
Provides statistics on the sales of new privately-owned single-family residential structures in the U.S. New homes sold data are only available at the national and regional levels. Data included in the press release are:
* Number of new single-family houses sold
* Number of new single-family houses for sale
* U.S. median and average sales prices of new homes sold.
Housing Vacancies and Homeownership
Rental and homeowner vacancy rates and homeownership rates are available for the U.S., regions, states, and for the 75 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). Data for all geographies are available both quarterly and annually. Homeownership rates are also tabulated by age of householder and by family status for the U.S. and regions and by race/ethnicity of householder and by median family income for the U.S. In addition, estimates of the total housing inventory and percent distributions of vacant for-rent and for-sale-only units are available for the U.S. and regions.
Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-eGIS Storefront
The HUD-eGIS Storefront provides a one-stop shop where users can search for and discover HUD's geospatial datasets, web-based mapping tools, and application programming interfaces (APIs).
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) User Data Sets
HUD USER provides interested researchers with access to the original data sets generated by PD&R-sponsored data collection efforts, including the American Housing Survey, HUD median family income limits, fair market rents, as well as microdata from research initiatives on topics such as housing discrimination, the HUD-insured multifamily housing stock, and the public housing population.
Manufactured Housing Survey
The Manufactured Housing Survey (MHS) is sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and collected by the Census Bureau, and provides data on shipments, prices and characteristics of new manufactured housing.
New Residential Construction
This page provides national and regional data on the number of new housing units authorized by building permits; authorized, but not started; started; under construction; and completed. The data are for new, privately-owned housing units, excluding "HUD-code" manufactured (mobile) homes. The data are from the Building Permits Survey, and from the Survey of Construction (SOC), which is partially funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Local building permit data may be found on the Building Permits Survey webpage.
Residential Improvements and Repairs
These tables present improvement and repair expenditures by property owners for residential properties in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the exceptions noted below. These data cover single and multiunit structures, publicly and privately owned structures, nonfarm and farm properties, and residential properties that are occupied by owners or renters or are vacant.

Mortgages

Mortgage data from the US Census Bureau
Mortgage data from Sage Data
Pulls from various databases, including Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, Consumer Expenditures Survey, Federal Contracts and Procurements, and more
National Mortgage Database
Aggregate data files and public use data files
Federal Housing Finance Agency
Links to federal home loan bank member data, house price index, stress tests for market and credit risk, mortgage originations, and other public use databases
Disparities in Mortgage Lending and Foreclosures: Maps and Data
From the Center for Responsible Lending
Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Longitudinal Dataset by Census Tract, United States, 1981-2021
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) database (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2022) has compiled mortgage lending data since 1981, but the collection and dissemination methods have changed over time (Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, 2018), creating barriers to conducting longitudinal analyses. This HMDA Longitudinal Dataset (HLD) organizes and standardizes information across different eras of HMDA data collection between 1981 and 2020, enabling such analysis. This collection contains two datasets: 1) HMDA aggregated data by census tract for each decade and 2) HMDA aggregated data by census tract for individual years. Items for analysis include borrower income values, mortgages by loan type (e.g., conventional, Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Veterans Affairs (VA), refinances), and mortgages by borrower race and gender.

Homelessness

City of San Diego homelessness data & reports
Includes homeless programs overview dashboards (from San Diego Housing Commission), annual homeless counts (by Regional Task Force on Homelessness), and monthly downtown homeless count tables.
Downtown San Diego homeless sleepers
Five years of monthly geographic positions for homeless sleepers in Downtown San Diego collected by the Downtown San Diego Partnership. Currently covers 2014 to 2019.
California HDIS homelessness count
Yearly statewide and by-Continuum of Care total counts of individuals receiving homeless response services by age group, race, ethnicity, and gender. This data comes from the Homelessness Data Integration System (HDIS), a statewide data warehouse which compiles and processes data from all 44 California Continuums of Care (CoC)—regional homelessness service coordination and planning bodies. Currently covers 2017 to 2022.
US Census emergency and transitional shelter population
This special report focuses on the 209,000 people enumerated in the 2010 Census at emergency and transitional shelters and their demographic characteristics and geographic distribution.
US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) homelessness data
Raw data sets containing Point-in-Time (PIT) estimates of homelessness, including homeless veteran estimates starting in 2011. Housing Inventory Count (HIC) is also available.
US Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR)
The Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) is a HUD report to the U.S. Congress that provides nationwide estimates of homelessness, including information about the demographic characteristics of homeless persons, service use patterns, and the capacity to house homeless persons. Currently covers 2007 to 2022.