Moody’s Analytics, Reinvestment Fund, and PolicyMap Housing Gap Estimates
| Details | Housing Gap Estimates |
|---|---|
| Topics | Housing |
| Source | Moody’s Analytics, Reinvestment Fund, and PolicyMap |
| Years Available | 2019-2023 |
| Geographies | Census Tract |
| Public Edition or Subscriber-only | Public Edition |
| Download Available | Yes |
| For more information | https://www.policymap.com/data/moodys-housing-shortfall |
| Last updated on PolicyMap | July 2025 |
Description:
The Housing Gap Estimates use American Communities Survey data to estimate the level of units of housing, both owner and renter, a given census tract is short.
Moody’s Analytics and Reinvestment Fund use a methodology to create estimates of the number of housing units a given tract is short by comparing a tract’s vacancy rate to the historical “equilibrium” vacancy rate of the City in which the tract sits. The equilibrium rate is derived by taking the average vacancy rate during a stable housing market. Data is available for the most recent 5 year ACS period (2019-2023), and for census tracts within 350 of the largest cities in the United States. Each tract additionally has a “Severity” estimate that contextualizes the percentage of vacant units as either close to balanced, or substantially or modestly oversupplied or undersupplied.
The full methodology can be found in the published paper here https://www.policymap.com/data/moodys-housing-shortfall.