Updates to HCD's Housing Data Tools

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is pleased to announce updates to our Affordability Calculator and Statewide Housing Plan Dashboard, and a new way to access HCD’s data through the California Open Data Portal.

Statewide Housing Plan Dashboard is now updated!

As part of the 2022 update to the Statewide Housing Plan, HCD released a data dashboard that provides the public with quick and easy access to information and metrics on state and local housing conditions.

The Statewide Housing Plan Dashboard is now updated with 2020 data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey, 2021 data from the Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, 2021 data from HUD’s Point-in-Time Counts, and additional data from HCD on mobilehome sales.

What information can be found in the Statewide Housing Plan Dashboard?

The Statewide Housing Plan Dashboard allows users to quickly access state, county, and regional (metropolitan statistical area) data on:

Households and their housing needs, including household size, racial/ethnic demographics, median income, and cost-burden rates
Housing conditions and costs, including the age of the housing stock, housing types and size, and median home value and rents
Housing production, including housing units permitted by unit type and mobilehome sales and manufacture year

More information about the Statewide Housing Plan and the 10-year Housing Data Strategy can be found on the Statewide Housing Plan website.

Updated Affordability Calculator for Local Government Reporting

HCD makes available a Housing Affordability Calculator to assist local governments in determining the affordability level of housing units for the purpose of completing the Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR) form. This calculator generates the lowest income category for which a unit would be affordable based on the year built, the county in which the unit is located, the number of bedrooms, whether it is to be renter or owner occupied, and rent or sales price. HCD has updated this calculator to allow jurisdictions to calculate the affordability level for new developments based on the 2022 Official State Income limits.

HCD Joins 50+ State Organization on the California Open Data Portal

HCD data can now be viewed and downloaded from the California Open Data Portal. The open data portal makes it easy to search, download, and combine HCD data with other data sets from other sources. This includes data on all building applications, entitlements, permits, and completions in the state through the Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR) Dataset. Users now have the option to automate a connection to HCD’s datasets using an Application Processing Interface (API). The dataset is also summarized and displayed on the Housing Element Implementation and APR Data Dashboard.

Follow the California Department of Housing and Community Development in the Open Data Portal to track updates on the data HCD shares on the portal.

For questions about the Affordability Calculator or Housing Element Annual Progress Report data, please contact [email protected].

For questions about the Statewide Housing Plan Dashboard, please contact [email protected].