The American Housing Survey (AHS) was established in 1973 and the current sample has been in place since 1985. HUD’s annual investment in the AHS is approximately $30 million. At different points in its history, the AHS has undergone revisions to accommodate changing data needs and new insights into best practices for survey design and questions. HUD PD&R is planning a major redesign for 2015. HUD PD&R is implementing a multi-part strategy to solicit ideas for the redesign.

• The first part of this strategy was to engage the major users of the AHS to determine evaluate the impacts of different sample design options; this took place in 2011 and 2012.

• The second part of this strategy, implemented in January 2013, is a Federal Register Notice soliciting comments on redesign issues.

• The third part of the strategy is an AHS Redesign Planning Conference, scheduled for May 2013.

• The fourth part of this strategy is one-on-one meetings with interested AHS users.

• The fifth part of this strategy is internal and external research supporting the redesign.

The AHS Redesign Conference is where HUD PD&R hopes to get the most feedback from AHS users. The AHS Redesign Conference will be patterned after PD&R’s highly successful Research Roadmap Conference and will focus on three key areas: (1) sample size and scope; (2) questions and future housing topics; and (3) improving the user experience. The goal of the conference is two-fold. First, HUD PD&R hopes to see if any general consensus emerges regarding major redesign issues. Second, HUD PD&R hopes to gather important redesign questions that are currently difficult to answer but will be part of a redesign research agenda for the coming year.