Residential Finance Survey

The Residential Finance Survey (RFS) was conducted in the year following the decennial census from 1951 – 2001. It is designed to provide data about the financing of nonfarm, privately owned, residential properties. The 2001 RFS was conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A representative national sample of about 68,000 residential addresses was drawn from the address file for Census 2000. These addresses were limited to counties and independent cities in the 394 sampling areas used for the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey National Sample. The RFS includes questions on the financing of homeowner and rental properties, including detailed characteristics of the mortgages, properties, and property owners. Detailed information for all first mortgages including: application method, reasons for refinancing, amounts and uses of cash-outs, year of origination, use of mortgage insurance or guarantees, type of mortgage, origination amounts and current balance, interest rate, interest rate buydowns, original and remaining term of the mortgage, indexes and caps used for ARMs, and items included in and amounts of monthly payments. Similar, but less detailed, information is reported for junior mortgages and home equity lines of credit.