Our July 3, 2023, Urban Wire post on renters feeling pressured to leave their homes contained inaccurate results. We retracted the post and wrote a new analysis based on corrected numbers. 

What happened

We analyzed US Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey data from week 58, fielded June 7–19, finding that approximately 22 percent of renter households felt pressure to leave their current homes. We published this analysis on July 5. On September 19, 2023, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a similar analysis using weeks 58–60 and found 44 percent of renter households felt pressured to leave their homes. After consulting with researchers at HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research, we determined that our original analysis had failed to remove nonrenter households from the calculations. 

We reran the code with the Household Pulse Survey Public Use Files (PUF), the microdata that contain individual responses to survey questions, and, excluding nonrenters, found 44 percent of renter households felt pressured to leave their homes compared with 22 percent of all households who answered these survey questions. For the revised version of the blog post, we used data from weeks 58–62 to increase statistical power and accuracy and found that 44 percent of renter households felt pressured to leave their homes. 

All the overall trends in the original analysis still hold. Far too many renters are feeling pressured to leave their homes. Black and Latinx renter households state they feel pressure to leave their home more often than white households, and the top reasons renters feel pressured to move are increased rent, other pressures, and ignored repairs. However, the overall share of renters feeling such pressures, across all groups, is higher than we originally thought.

How it happened

We originally used the Census Pulse tables, which are tabulated by the Census Bureau and released earlier than the PUF. To quickly analyze the new Pulse Survey questions, we calculated percentages based on the Census tables. The blog post went through the standard review process, which includes a researcher who was not an author of the post double-checking the data. Usually, that process catches any errors. In this case, neither the authors nor the additional checker realized that nonrenter households had answered the rental portion of the survey. 

To fix our mistake, we wrote R code to analyze the PUF dataset and calculate estimates and standard errors to include only nonrenter households. We also had a nonauthor researcher review this new code.

Moving forward

We have taken steps to alert those who relied on and referred to these data. We have also updated and revised any publications that cited the data. Going forward, we have made the decision not to complete analysis with the Census Pulse tables and to instead wait for the PUF data release. These data allow us to understand in greater detail who is feeling pressured to move and why, create more specific analyses, and evaluate the statistical power. We are reviewing and revising our internal quality assurance processes to fulfill our commitment to providing high-quality analyses readers can trust.