[UC] Neighborhood housing composition

[Anthony West]

Dan wrote: >If there are an avarage of 5 housing units in every rental house or >building (and it's probably higher) that would make almost 36% of >the buildings in the area owner occupied.    Dan's is an interesting question. I do not believe that the US Census Bureau provides the answers, though. Certainly it doesn't attempt that in the Decennial Census, which is a census of people rather than of structures.  I know there are agencies that need to count buildings, however -- probably city agencies. Can anybody give us some leads?   But this question too is of limited interest. Say my owner-occupied house is one building, the identical house next door which is divided into 5 apartments is one building, and the Fairfax is one building. So what? Vastly more bricks went into the Fairfax than into my house; in what meaningful way do we each "count as one"? The building next door is housing more people per brick than mine is; does that mean it lowers the neighborhood's tone by increasing density, or combats global warming by increasing efficiency?   One should also remember that a large percentage of owner-occupied housing units in this neighborhood *also* contain renters. So it is mathematically inaccurate to contrast "rental" vs. "owner occupied" buildings; there is overlap.   -- Tony West