The Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) supports the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) initiatives to help create cohesive, economically healthy communities. To discharge this mission, it maintains current information on housing needs, market conditions, and existing programs. It also is charged with conducting research on priority housing and community development issues to support policy decision-making. As part of its outreach efforts, PD&R publishes reliable and objective data to encourage a greater diversity of perspectives, methods, and researchers in HUD research.


To encourage utilization of PD&R data, it presents Biennial Reports to education users of its data and research about the organization, what it does, and how it functions. PD&R produces about who PD&R is, what PD&R does, how it functions, and its most notable and transformative accomplishments over the reporting period.



One of the key components of PD&Rs mission is to provide reliable and objective housing research and market data to constituents and policy-makers. Since many policy questions have short fuses, it produces quick-turnaround studies and hosts conferences that complement long-term evaluations and on-going research. Its Research Projects are documented and made accessible in three categories: Ongoing Research, Recently Completed Research, and Other Completed Research.
For example, there are 57 Ongoing Research projects which can be previewed in abstract mode.



PD&Rs Research Partnerships has the authority to accept unsolicited research proposals that address current research priorities. The current list of priorities includes: Promote Economic Opportunity, Enhance Rental Assistance, Reduce the Average Length of Homelessness, Support Sustainable Homeownership and Financial Viability, Remove Lead Hazards from Homes, Provide Effective Disaster Recovery, Opportunity Zones, and Reduce Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing The research proposals must be submitted by eligible applicants (e.g., academic institutions, philanthropic entities, States, federally recognized tribes, local government, and U.S. not-for-profit and for-profit institutions. In addition, it can provide cost sharing for at least 50 percent of total project cost from philanthropic entities or Federal, state or local government agencies.

The >Research Roadmap is a multiyear agenda that ensures a robust pipeline of research through research opportunities highlighted for Congress in annual budget requests as well as in-house and with other external partners in the research community.



PD&R serves as a conduit for some 130 plus Census and HUD surveys, providing additional datasets for users.



Some of these surveys of particular interest to real estate include:

• The American Housing Survey (AHS)The American Housing Survey (AHS) is sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The survey provides up-to-date information about the quality and cost of housing in the United States and major metropolitan areas including: the physical condition of homes and neighborhoods, the costs of financing and maintaining homes, and the characteristics of people who live in these homes.

• The Survey of Construction (SOC) provides current national and regional statistics on starts, completions, and characteristics of new, privately-owned single-family and multifamily housing units and on sales of new single-family houses.

• The Survey of Market Absorption of Apartments (SOMA) uses the Census Bureau's Survey of Construction (SOC) as its sampling base. Each month, a sample of residential buildings containing five or more units is selected for SOMA. The initial 3-month interview collects information on amenities, rent or sales price levels, number of units, type of building, and the number of units taken off the market (absorbed). The absorption data for the Survey of Market Absorption of New Multifamily Units (SOMA) features a user-generated format called Table Creator that allows users to create data-specific tables by selecting pre-defined topics and column characteristics.

• The Manufactured Homes Survey (MHS) provides data on the manufactured homes industry including key statistics and shipments. The datasets are available for download under the Census's Public Use Files.

• The Rental Housing Finance Survey (RHFS) provides a current and continuous measure of financial, mortgage, and property characteristics of rental housing properties in the United States. The survey focuses on the financing of rental housing properties, with emphasis on new mortgages, refinanced mortgages, or similar devices such as deeds of trust or land contracts, and the characteristics of debt originations.

• The American Healthy Homes Survey II (AHHS) was HUD, in cooperation with the EPA, surveyed homes in the U.S. to evaluate the presence of lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards as well as water samples for lead, air samples for formaldehyde, floor dust samples for mold, wipe samples for pesticide residues, and presence of lead water pipes feeding the home (service lines).