Metadata: Affordable Housing Production, Twin Cities Metropolitan Area

Affordable Housing Production, Twin Cities Metropolitan Area

This page last updated: 10/06/2022
Metadata created using Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines


Go to Section:
  1. Overview
  2. Data Quality
  3. Data Organization
  4. Coordinate System
  5. Attributes
  6. Distribution - Get Data
  7. Metadata Reference

Section 1: Overview

Originator:Metropolitan Council

Title: Affordable Housing Production, Twin Cities Metropolitan Area

Abstract: This dataset consists of summary data for affordable and market-rate owner-occupied and rental housing production, based on building permits issued during each calendar year by cities and townships within the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan region of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Data is collected through a variety of sources including county parcel data.

Purpose: This dataset was created to summarize and analyze development trends of residential housing production in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan region of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Time Period of Content Date: December 31, 2021

Currentness Reference: This dataset reflects permit information collected annually from 1996 through 2022.

Progress: Complete

Maintenance and Update Frequency: Annually

Spatial Extent of Data: Twin Cities 7 County Metropolitan Area. This includes the counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington in Minnesota.

Bounding Coordinates: -94.012
-92.732
45.415
44.471

Place Keywords: Twin Cities, Anoka County, Carver County, Dakota County, Hennepin County, Ramsey County, Scott County, Washington County

Theme Keywords: Residential, affordable, housing

Theme Keyword Thesaurus: None

Access Constraints: None

Use Constraints: None

Contact Person Information: Joel Nyhus, Researcher
Metropolitan Council
390 Robert Street North
St. Paul, Minnesota  55101-1805
Phone: 651-602-1634
Fax: 651-602-1674
Email: [email protected]

Browse Graphic: none available


Associated Data Sets: None

Section 2: Data Quality

Attribute Accuracy: Valid code tests have been conducted. No known attribute errors exist.

Logical Consistency:

Completeness: Entire seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul is covered.

Horizontal Positional Accuracy:


Lineage: The data were obtained through an annual survey sent to communities by the Metropolitan Council in conjunction with collection of residential building permits. Respondents are asked to provide project information for the number of new housing units produced in their community annually.

Data on affordability was gathered and verified by Metropolitan Council staff through various means including: survey responses, parcel data, contact with community staff, community websites, and comparison to data in the Council's Service Availability Charge (SAC) reports where possible. See https://metrocouncil.org/Communities/Services/Livable-Communities-Grants/Ownership-and-Rent-Affordability-Limits.aspx for more information on affordability definitions and limits.

For this data, projects are counted at the time local units of government issued building permits.

Historical data may be available for the following places:

Burns Township (became the city of Nowthen, July 2008)
Chaska Township (merged with the city of Chaska, January 2005)
Columbus Township (became the city of Columbus, September 2006)
Credit River Township (became the city of Credit River, June 2021)
Elko (merged with the city of New Market to become Elko New Market, January 2007)
Forest Lake Township (merged with the city of Forest Lake, March 2000)
Grant Township (became the city of Grant, January 1997)
Hassan Township (merged with the city of Rogers, January 1, 2012)
New Market (merged with the city of Elko to become Elko New Market, January 2007)
New Scandia Township (became the city of Scandia, January 2007)
Norwood (merged with the city of Young America to become Norwood Young America, January 1997)
Oak Grove Township (became the city of Oak Grove, December 1993)
Young America (merged with the city of Norwood to become Norwood Young America, January 1997)

Section 3: Spatial Data Organization (not used in this metadata)


Section 4: Coordinate System

Horizontal Coordinate Scheme:

Horizontal Datum:

Horizontal Units:

Vertical Datum: not applicable

Vertical Units: NA

Depth Datum: NA

Depth Units: NA

Section 5: Attributes

Overview: Attributes for Chart Data:

CTU_NAME: Name of the city, township or unorganized territory.

YEAR: The year associated with the data.

TENURE: Rental units; Owner occupied units.

AFFORDABILITY: The Council's definition of affordability has varied over time. In general, "affordable housing" is considered housing that is affordable to low- and moderate-income households. 'Affordable' means that housing costs are less than 30 percent of a household’s income.

Affordability level is often simply represented by the percentage of Area Median Income (AMI; as calculated annually by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) necessary for the costs of a given housing unit to be under 30 percent of income. The overall Council definition of affordability is a threshold for the AMI percentage that is defined as low- or moderate-income.

For owner-occupied households, housing costs include mortgage costs (mortgage payments, taxes, insurance and related housing costs) with prevailing home mortgage interest rates also taken into account.
For rental units, the Council uses the maximum monthly rents permitted in the Twin Cities metropolitan area for federal low-income housing tax credit eligibility in that year.

Over Affordability Threshold: The housing units that do not meet the definition of Affordable for that year.

(2014-current): Affordable for Owner-occupied households is defined up to 80 percent of area median family income; for affordable rental units, the Council defines affordability as housing units affordable to households making up to 60 percent of area median income.

(2011 to 2013): Affordable for Owner-occupied households defined up to 60 percent of area median family income; for affordable rental units, the Council defines affordability as housing units affordable to households making up to 60 percent of area median income.

(1996 to 2010): Affordable for Owner-occupied households is defined up to 80 percent of area median family income. For affordable rental units, the Council defines affordability as housing units affordable to households making up to 50 percent of area median income.

QUANTITY: The number of housing units at that affordability level and tenure that were permitted in a given CTU and year.


Attributes for Tabular Data:

CO_CODE: 3 digit FIPS and state standard county ID code
003 = Anoka County
019 = Carver County
037 = Dakota County
053 = Hennepin County
123 = Ramsey County
139 = Scott County
163 = Washington County

CTU_CODE: 5 digit FIPS55 'Place' code for CTU. As of 2006 these codes have been officially retired by the federal government. They are replaced by the GNIS codes. FIPS codes will continue to be included in this dataset, but codes will not be created for new cities.

CTU_ID: The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) official federal unique identifier for each city, township or unorganized territory.

COCTU_ID: 11 digit identifier for the combination of county and CTU (concatenation of CO_CODE and CTU_ID_CEN). This is the official U.S. Census Bureau format.

CTU_NAME: Name of the city, township or unorganized territory, for example, Benton Twp., Blaine.

YEAR: The year associated with the data.

HOUSING_TYPE_DESC: Housing unit type description.

HOUSING_TENURE: The financial arrangement for occupancy of the housing unit.
RNT: Rental unit
OWN: Owner unit
COP: Cooperative

HOUSING_COST: Level of affordability (see following table)

QUANTITY: The number of housing units associated with the data.

UPDATE_DATE: The year the data was updated.

COMMUNITY DESIGNATION: A designation of each city and township based on the overall state of development and regional issues faced by that community.

Detailed Citation: None

Table Detail:
Aff_Housing_Prod - Affordable Housing Production data
Field NameValid ValuesDefinitionDefinition Source
HOUSING_COSTenumeratedAffordability relative to Area Median Income (uses AMI for the same year as data)
AFF30All units affordable at or below 30% of AMI
AFF50All units affordable at or below 50% of AMI
AFF60All units affordable at or below 60% of AMI
AFF80All units affordable at or below 80% of AMI
AFF115All units affordable at or below 115% of AMI
AFF_LE_30Affordable at or below 30% of Area Median Income
AFF_31_50Affordable at 31-50% of Area Median Income
AFF_51_80Affordable at 51-80% of Area Median Income
AFF_51_60Affordable at 51-60% of Area Median Income
AFF_61_80Affordable at 61-80% of Area Median Income
AFF_81_115Affordable at 81-115% of Area Median Income
AFF_GT_115Affordable above 115% of Area Median Income
MKTMarket-rate/not affordable

Section 6: Distribution

Publisher: Metropolitan Council

Publication Date: periodically revised

Contact Person Information: Joel Nyhus, Researcher
Metropolitan Council
390 Robert Street North
St. Paul, Minnesota  55101-1805
Phone: 651-602-1634
Fax: 651-602-1674
Email: [email protected]

Distributor's Data Set Identifier: affordable_housing_production

Distribution Liability: NOTICE: The data to which this notice is attached are made available pursuant to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13). THE DATA ARE PROVIDED TO YOU AS IS AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY AS TO THEIR PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The Metropolitan Council developed some of the data for its own internal business purposes and is redistributing data developed by other data providers (e.g., the U.S. Census Bureau and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development). The Metropolitan Council does not represent or warrant that the data or the data documentation are error-free, complete, current, or accurate. You are responsible for any consequences resulting from your use of the data or your reliance on the data. You should consult the data documentation for these particular data to determine the limitations of the data. If you transmit or provide the data (or any portion of it) to another user, it is recommended that the data include a copy of this disclaimer and this metadata.

Ordering Instructions: This entire dataset is available on the internet by clicking below after 'Online Linkage'. Doing so will tell your browser to download a 'ZIP' file which will contain the following:

- csv file
- metadata for the dataset (.htm)
- NOTICE.RTF, an important notice about this dataset that can be read by any word processing software.

This dataset can also be viewed and downloaded using the Download Tabular Data tool at http://stats.metc.state.mn.us/data_download/DD_start.aspx . The Download tool allows users to choose subsets of the dataset, such as a city or county.

Online Linkage:Download Page

Section 7: Metadata Reference

Metadata Date: 10/06/2022

Contact Person Information: Laine McNamara, Business Systems Analyst 2
Metropolitan Council
390 Robert Street North
St. Paul, MN  55106
Phone: 651.602.1335
Email: [email protected]

Metadata Standard Name: Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines

Metadata Standard Version: 1.2

Metadata Standard Online Linkage: http://www.gis.state.mn.us/stds/metadata.htm


This page last updated: 10/06/2022
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