ABSTRACT
This chapter encourages housing specialists to conduct fine-grained research using data that is available at the neighborhood scale. In Chapter 4, we discussed the power of using census data because it is a robust and reliable data source. Analysis at the neighborhood scale using data at the census tract level has the potential to provide critical insights and generate newer lines of research inquiry. Some of the hardest challenges around addressing housing issues focus on the question of density – how much density, where, and who should live in dense environments. These are value-laden questions. We remind readers that following Ramasubramanian and Albrecht’s (2018) observation that GIS cannot directly address value questions, but it can make value conflicts explicit.
