FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                        THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2000 


Public Information Office                                     CB00-146
301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax)
301-457-1037 (TDD)
e-mail: pio@census.gov

Jane Kneessi
301-457-3235

          Census Bureau Releases Housing Data for the Nation
                  and Selected Metropolitan Areas

  The Commerce Department's Census Bureau and the Department of Housing
and Urban Development today released on the Internet data from the 1999
American Housing Survey for the nation and the 1998 American Housing
Survey for 15 metropolitan areas.

  Topics include neighborhood satisfaction and crime, street noise or
traffic conditions, total number of housing units, median age of homes,
rooms per unit, monthly housing costs, median household income and median
value of occupied housing units.

  The metropolitan areas are:

Baltimore, Md.                         Oakland, Calif.
Birmingham, Ala.                       Providence-Pawtucket-Warwick, R.I.-Mass.
Boston, Mass.-N.H.                     Rochester, N.Y.
Cincinnati, Ohio-Ky.-Ind.              Salt Lake City, Utah
Houston, Texas                         San Francisco, Calif.
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.-Wis.       San Jose, Calif.
Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport         Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla.
  News, Va.                            Washington, D.C.-Md.-Va.

  The data were released via the Federal Electronic Research and Review
Extraction Tool (FERRET http://ferret.bls.census.gov/cgi-bin/ferret),
which allows users to compare different data sets, create simple tables
and download large data files to desktop and larger computers to develop
custom reports. Printed versions will be available over the next two
months.

  Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling
error.