Housing Bubble

Census Bureau releases commuting & housing data for 13 Metro Areas

July 14, 2003

The U.S. Census Bureau has released new housing and journey-to-work data for 13 metropolitan areas.

The 2002 American Housing Survey, sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, includes statistics on such journey-to-work topics as mode of transportation, departure time for work, travel time and distance from home to work. Also included is information on housing topics: for example, presence of refrigerators, microwaves and air-conditioning; number of rooms; housing deficiencies.

Highlights of some of the findings include:

• It took workers in the Dallas, Texas, primary metropolitan area an average of 24 minutes to reach their jobs each day; for those in the Buffalo, N.Y., metro area, the average was 18 minutes.
• Ten percent of workers in the Anaheim-Santa Ana, Calif., metro area and the San Diego, Calif., metro area carpooled to work; 13 percent of those in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., metro area did so.
• On a scale of 1-to-10, with 10 being the highest, 30 percent of homeowners in Buffalo, N.Y., rated their neighborhoods a perfect "10."
• Ninety-one percent of workers in Charlotte, N.C., typically leave home for work after 6 a.m.
• Fifteen percent of workers in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Fla., metro area work at home.
• Fifteen percent of homeowners in the Kansas City, Mo., metro area reported crime in their neighborhoods.
• Seventy-three percent of homeowners in the Milwaukee, Wis., metro area lived in homes valued at $100,000 or more.
• Nearly 100 percent of workers in the Portland, Ore., metro area typically commute fewer than 50 miles each day, from home to work.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau