- Description
- Codes
- Comparability
- Universe
- Availability
- Questionnaire Text
- Flags
- Source Variables
- Editing Procedure
Description
RENTGRS reports the gross monthly rental cost of the housing unit, including contract rent plus additional costs for utilities (water, electricity, gas) and fuels (oil, coal, kerosene, wood, etc.). The census PUMS for each year constructed this variable by adding the amounts reported for contract rent, utility costs, and fuel costs. RENTGRS amounts should be more comparable across renting households than RENT (Contract rent) amounts, which may or may not include utilities and fuels. See RENT for more discussion of contract rent.
Amounts are expressed in contemporary dollars, and users studying change over time must adjust for inflation (See INCTOT for Consumer Price Index adjustment factors). The exception is the ACS/PRCS multi-year files, where all dollar amounts have been standardized to dollars as valued in the final year of data included in the file (e.g., 2007 dollars for the 2005-2007 3-year file). Additionally, more detail may be available than exists in the original ACS samples.
RENTGRS is a 4-digit numeric variable that reports the gross monthly rental cost of the housing unit, including contract rent plus additional costs for utilities (water, electricity, gas) and fuels (oil, coal, kerosene, wood, etc.). The census PUMS for each year constructed this variable by adding the amounts reported for contract rent, utility costs, and fuel costs. RENTGRS amounts should be more comparable across renting households than RENT (Contract rent) amounts, which may or may not include utilities and fuels. See RENT for more discussion of contract rent. RENTGRS specific variable codes for missing, edited, or unidentified observations, observations not applicable (N/A), observations not in universe (NIU), top and bottom value coding, etc. are provided below by Census year (and data sample if specified).
User Note: Amounts are expressed in contemporary dollars, and users studying change over time must adjust for inflation (See Description). The exception is the ACS/PRCS multi-year files, where all dollar amounts have been standardized to dollars as valued in the final year of data included in the file (e.g., 2007 dollars for the 2005-2007 3-year file). Additionally, more detail may be available than exists in the original ACS samples.
RENTGRS Specific Variable Codes
| RENTGRS | |
| Census | Top Code |
| 1960 1% | $200 |
| 1960 5% | $999 |
| 1970 | $999 |
| 1980 | $999 |
| 1990 | $1,500* |
| 2000 | $9,999 |
| ACS | See Constituent Variables** |
| PRCS | See Constituent Variables** |