1. What is the purpose?
2. What is the sample size and how is it designed?
3. Who are the respondents?
4. Who sponsors the survey and what is the legal authority?
5. How often is the survey taken?
6. How are survey results made available?
7. What is the historical background?
8. Who pays to conduct the survey?

The primary purpose of the survey is to measure the net rental vacancy rate for New York City's rental stock, as required by law, and describe the supply, condition, and continued need for rent control and rent stabilization.  NYCHVS data are also used by policymakers, advocates, and researchers to inform policy and analyze housing costs and conditions in the City.

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The 2023 sample includes approximately 15,600 units selected from the Census Bureau’s Master Address File.  The sample was matched to administrative data files to ensure adequate coverage of various types of housing programs.

The sample is designed to produce a standard error of the estimate of the "vacant available for rent" rate for the entire city of no more than one-quarter of 1 percent, if the actual vacancy rate is 3 percent or less.

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The respondents will be residents of occupied units or, in the instance of vacant units, building managers, superintendents, or rental or real estate agents.

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The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (NYCHPD) sponsors the survey. Local authorization of the survey is pursuant to the Local Emergency Housing Rent Control Act (Chapter 8603, Laws of New York, as amended by Chapter 657; Laws of New York, 1967), Sections 26-414 and 26-415 of the Administrative Code of the City. Confidentiality of the respondents is protected under Title 13, Section 9, United States Code.

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The NYCHVS is taken approximately every 3 years.

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The following products will be available:

• A table creator tool, where users can create their own cross-tabulations along with measurements of error.
• A public use microdata file containing nonidentifiable individual records.

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The Census Bureau has conducted this survey for New York City since 1965. We selected a new sample, based on the 1990 census, for the 1991 survey.  At that time, the questionnaire was revised to collect more extensive income, employment, and demographic characteristics.  The 1996 questionnaire was expanded to include questions on handicapped-accessibility of housing units.  The 1999 survey included newly-devised questions on the immigration status of each householder, and detailed questions on rental subsidies.  Samples selected for 2002, 2005, and 2008 were based on the Census 2000 address file and had some new questions added on health conditions and neighborhood opinion.  Beginning with the 2011 survey, the sample was selected from the 2010 Census address file and had some new questions added on rental assistance, energy assistance, grab bars, and whether anyone in the household (65 or older) had fallen in the past 3 months.  A new sample was selected for the 2021 survey from the Census Bureau’s Master Address File and the survey will include many revised questions (after extended testing and analysis) and many new questions on items such as child care, debt and assets, expanded mortgage information, and COVID-related issues.  In addition, the method of collection for the 2021 survey changed from a Paper Assisted Personal Interview (PAPI - paper) to Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI - laptop) in order to streamline data collection efforts.

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The City of New York assumes all survey costs.

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