Publication Date
December 2006Author(s)
Barbara Bibb, Benard N. Theora, Brian Burke, Jennifer Wallin, Kathleen A Considine, Laura FlickerDesign, instrumentation, tracing plan, data collection methods, case management system and project management details for the in-home Community Advantage Panel surveys conducted for the Round 2 renters study and the Wave 3 in-home owners study.
The Accumulation of Wealth and Social Capital among Low-Income Renters is a longitudinal panel study that follows renters for five years. The study sample is designed to be a comparison group for a subset of the Community Advantage Panel Survey, an ongoing study of the accumulation of wealth and social capital among low- to moderate-income new homeowners that follows selected new owners for six years. It includes six telephone interviews and two in-home interviews. RTI International will conduct both in-home interviews and the three telephone interviews for the renters study.
The Survey Research Unit at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill will conduct the six telephone interviews for the owners study and RTI International will conduct the two in-home interviews. This report describes results from the first of the in-home interviews for both renters and owners.
The purpose of the renters study is to assess how being a renter affects families socially and economically and to determine how renters differ from ownerswho live in the same areas. To this end, the Center for Community Capitalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CCC) contracted with RTI International to
conduct all of the data collection (telephone and in-home interviews) for the Renters Study
and the in-home data collection for the Owners Study.
In 2005, which represented Round 2 of the renters study and Wave 3 of the owners study, RTI conducted in-home data collection for all of the renters and a subset of the owners (matched to the renters). The data were collected via computer-assisted personal interview instruments based on the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances. hese instruments asked questions about wealth and assets of the renters and owners and were administered in person to facilitate gathering financial information that would be difficult to obtain over the phone.
This report details the design, instrumentation, tracing plan, data collection methods, case management system, and project management for the in-home surveys conducted for the Round 2 renters study and the Wave 3 in-home owners study.