ACS 2005 Standard Quality Rent Calculation for
Belknap County, NH

The following information provides details on how the 2005 ACS Standard Quality Median Rent of $843 and the 2000 Census Standard Quality Median Rent of $633 and the update factor of 1.3318 was developed for Belknap County, NH using the publically releasable distributions for New Hampshire.

The distributions shown below are constructed by removing the counts of ACS-1 and ACS-2 areas from the total state distributions.

User Note

In computing state based standard qualtiy rents, HUD actually uses data on rent distributions that are prohibited from public release under Title XIII to protect the confidentiality of respondents. The distributions used in this demonstration are rounded versions of the actual, protected data.

The rounding scheme is as follows:

0, count = 0
1 to 7, count = 4
all other counts are rounded to the nearest 5 (e.g., 10, 15, 20, 25, etc.)

CALCULATIONS USING THE ROUNDED DATA MAY NOT PRODUCE THE SAME RESULT AS CALCULATIONS USING THE PROTECTED DATA. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HUD'S ACTUAL RESULTS AND THOSE DEMONSTRATED HERE IS INVERSELY RELATED TO THE SIZE OF THE AREA. THAT IS, THE LARGER THE AREA, THE CLOSER THE CALCULATION BASED ON THE ROUNDED DATA IS LIKELY TO BE TO THE CENSUS BASE RENT COMPUTED FROM THE PROTECTED DATA.


Standard Quality Rents

HUD uses rents for standard quality units to generate update factors. "Standard Quality" units and rents are determined by limiting the full Census sample by including only responses meeting the following criteria:

a. Occupied rental units paying cash rent
b. Specified renter ? on 10 acres or less
c. with full plumbing
d. with full kitchen
e. built before 1999
f. meals not included in rent

Neither the 2000 Census not the 2005 ACS included a question that could be used to filter public or assisted housing from the rental distributions, however HUD is required to ensure that FMRs exclude non-market rental housing in their computation. Therefore, HUD excludes all units falling below a specified rent level determined from public housing rents in HUD's program databases as likely to be either assisted housing or otherwise at a below-market rent (perhaps due to quality problems not otherwise captured by the survey questions).

The "public housing" rent cut-off in New Hampshire in 2005 is $351 and the 2000 cut-off rent is $338.

A Microsoft Excel file containing the unsummarized versions of the publicly releasable standard quality 2-bedroom rent distributions from the 2005 ACS for New Hampshire, excluding ACS-1 and ACS-2 areas, is available here.

A Microsoft Excel file containing the unsummarized versions of the publicly releasable standard quality 2-bedroom rent distributions from the 2000 Census for New Hampshire, excluding ACS-1 and ACS-2 areas, is available here.


50th Percentile 2005 ACS Standard Quality Rent - New Hampshire

The following table and calculations demonstrate how the 50th percentile 2005 ACS standard quality rent is determined for New Hampshire using the public distribution of standard quality rents for the state.

Portion of Standard Quality Rent Distribution Gross Rent Dollar Range Number of Units Percent of Eligible Distribution Cumulative Percent
Units below interval containing
public housing rent level of $351
$0 to $349 1,250 Not in Distribution Not in Distribution
Units in interval containing
public housing rent level of $351
$350 to $350 8.80 Not in Distribution Not in Distribution
$351 to $374 211.20 1.2% 1.2%
Units below interval containing
50th percentile standard quality rent of $843
$375 to $824 8,055 46.5% 47.7%
Units in interval containing
50th percentile standard quality rent of $843
$825 to $849 560 3.2% 50.9%
Units above interval containing
50th percentile standard quality rent of $843
$850 or more 8,515 49.1% 100.0%
Total Units Above Public Housing Rent in Standard Quality Rent Distribution   17,341.20    

The numbers of units with standard quality rents above and below the Public Housing Rent level of $351 for New Hampshire are determined using linear interpolation over the 220 units in the rent range $350 to $374. Linear interpolation uses the assupmtion that the 220 units' rents are uniformly distributed in the rent range around the Public Housing Rent level. Under this assumption, the proportion of the rent interval ($25) that is below the Public Housing Rent level is the same as the proportion of units with rents in the interval (220) that have rents below the Public Housing Rent level.

Proportion of rent interval below the Public Housing Rent Level: ($351 - $350) / $25 = 0.0400

Units in the Public Housing Rent Level Interval below the Public Housing Rent Level: 0.0400 x 220 = 8.80

The 50th percentile standard quality rent for New Hampshire is computed by linear interpolation over the 560 units in the rent range $825 to $849. Linear interpolation uses the assupmtion that the 560 units' rents are uniformly distributed in the rent range around the 50th percentile. Under this assumption, the proportion of the rent interval ($25) that needs to be added to the lower limit of the interval to reach the 50th percentile rent is the same as the proportion of units in the interval that needs to be added to the units in lower rent intervals to reach 50 percent of units in the distribution.

50 percent of units = 0.5 x 17,341.20 = 8,670.60

Units below the 50th percentile rent interval = 8,055.00 + 211.20 = 8,266.20

Units in 50th percentile rent interval needed to reach 50 percent of units = 8,670.60 - 8,266 = 404.40

Additional Units as Proportion of Interval = 404.40 / 560 = 0.7221

Dollars Added to Lower Limit of Interval to reach 50th percentile rent = 0.7221 x $25 = $18

50th percentile standard quality rent = $825 + $18 = $843


50th Percentile Standard Quality Rent - New Hampshire

The following table and calculations demonstrate how the 50th percentile Census 2000 standard quality rent is determined for New Hampshire using the public distribution of standard quality rents for the state.

Portion of Standard Quality Rent Distribution Gross Rent Dollar Range Number of Units Percent of Eligible Distribution Cumulative Percent
Units below interval containing
public housing rent level of $338
$1 to $324 1,540 Not in Distribution Not in Distribution
Units in interval containing
public housing rent level of $338
$325 to $337 154.44 Not in Distribution Not in Distribution
$338 to $349 142.56 0.8% 0.8%
Units below interval containing
50th percentile standard quality rent of $633
$350 to $624 8,843 47.1% 47.8%
Units in interval containing
50th percentile standard quality rent of $633
$625 to $649 1,221 6.5% 54.3%
Units above interval containing
50th percentile standard quality rent of $633
$650 or more 8,576 45.7% 100.0%
Total Units Above Public Housing Rent in Standard Quality Rent Distribution   18,782.56    

The numbers of units with standard quality rents above and below the Public Housing Rent level of $338 for New Hampshire are determined using linear interpolation over the 297 units in the rent range $325 to $349. Linear interpolation uses the assupmtion that the 297 units' rents are uniformly distributed in the rent range around the Public Housing Rent level. Under this assumption, the proportion of the rent interval ($25) that is below the Public Housing Rent level is the same as the proportion of units with rents in the interval (297) that have rents below the Public Housing Rent level.

Proportion of rent interval below the Public Housing Rent Level: ($338 - $325) / $25 = 0.5200

Units in the Public Housing Rent Level Interval below the Public Housing Rent Level: 0.5200 x 297 = 154.44

The 50th percentile standard quality rent for New Hampshire is computed by linear interpolation over the 1,221 units in the rent range $625 to $649. Linear interpolation uses the assupmtion that the 1,221 units' rents are uniformly distributed in the rent range around the 50th percentile. Under this assumption, the proportion of the rent interval ($25) that needs to be added to the lower limit of the interval to reach the 50th percentile rent is the same as the proportion of units in the interval that needs to be added to the units in lower rent intervals to reach 50 percent of units in the distribution.

50 percent of units = 0.5 x 18,782.56 = 9,391.28

Units below the 50th percentile rent interval = 8,843.00 + 142.56 = 8,985.56

Units in 50th percentile rent interval needed to reach 50 percent of units = 9,391.28 - 8,986 = 405.72

Additional Units as Proportion of Interval = 405.72 / 1,221 = 0.3323

Dollars Added to Lower Limit of Interval to reach 50th percentile rent = 0.3323 x $25 = $8

50th percentile standard quality rent = $625 + $8 = $633


Computing the 2000 - 2005 State Standard Quality Update Factor - Belknap County, NH

The 2000 to 2005 update factor is calculated as the ratio of the 2005 ACS standard quality median rent to the 2000 Cesus standard quality median rent for New Hampshire. Therefore the 2000 - 2005 update factor is:

= 2005 Standard Quality Median Rent / 2000 Standard Quality Median Rent

= $843 / $633

= 1.3318

The difference between the actual 2000 - 2005 update factor of 1.3318 and the demonstration update factor of 1.3318 computed here is due to the effects of computational rounding and the use of the rounding performed on the public distributions as described above.



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