ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins with a brief description of the comprehensive plan. It discusses the research as the activity of collecting, managing, analyzing, and presenting data. The book concerns the analysis of demographic characteristics, which are characterized in terms of the six key variables of total population, age, race/ethnicity, gender, income and poverty, and educational attainment. It provides the identification of 11 variables that are keys to an analysis of local housing, and an explanation of each in terms of its characteristics and relevance to planning. The book explains economic analysis around two areas of inquiry: economic performance and base trends, which are defined in terms of employment status, wages and benefits, employment geography, occupations, and such employer and non-employer characteristics as scale and renewal, linkages, composition, and competitiveness.
