The Yost Index has been updated with 2015-2019 data, this time with margins of error attached. The margins of error represent 90% confidence intervals as calculated using the Census Bureau’s variance replicate tables. For the most part, the Yost Index values are precise to about plus or minus 8 points, but there is plenty of local variation.
The values being posted today are being labeled as beta as they have not undergone quite as much checking as previous posts. In addition, the census tracts included were limited to those with reported values for all seven Yost index components (house value, rent, income, poverty rate, unemployment rate, educational level, and occupational category). Other versions of the index posted here have imputed missing values. This step was omitted in the name of simplicity as the process of determining the margins of error was very computationally intensive, but these values will be added back as soon as practicable. The 2014-2018 data contains Yost Indexes for 72,920 tracts, while the beta version of the 2015-2019 data contains Yost Indexes for 71,590 tracts. Most of the dropped tracts are those where there are either no rental units or no owner-occupied units.
All data is available for download here.
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