At the request of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), staff from the Center for Survey Measurement (CSM) cognitively pretested new and revised survey questions for the 2017 American Housing Survey (AHS). It included several questions about commuting habits, and preparedness for an emergency or disaster. Other questions were about school enrollment, number of floors in a home, home equipment, mortgage details, and reasons for moving from a previous home.

Results of 35 cognitive interviews conducted between June and September 2016 include the following: 1) respondents with varying work schedules had difficulty with commuting questions about a "typical" work day or week. These respondents often chose to answer based instead on an "average" day or week, and gave a calculation or estimation for questions requiring a quantitative answer; 2) many respondents answered "Yes" to questions about having a specific quantity of food or water in the home for emergency purposes, based on simply having the specified amount of food/water. These respondents were uncertain about whether the question intent was if this supply was deliberately set aside for an emergency.