The American Housing Survey (AHS) is conducted biennially by the Census Bureau for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to obtain information about the size and composition of the residential housing inventory, changes in the inventory resulting from new construction and losses, indicators of housing and neighborhood quality, as well as information about selected characteristics of the occupants. The first survey in the series was taken in 1973 under the name Annual Housing Survey and was repeated annually until 1981 when it became a biennial survey.