OPTIMAL HOUSING COST ESTIMATES FOR 177 U.S. METROPOLITAN AREAS
测试六种大都市区住房成本指标预测基准住房成本的能力，发现基于人口普查的第四种指标和HUD公平市场租金指标表现最佳，可用于生活成本研究。
ABSTRACT This research tests the ability of six metropolitan‐level measures of housing costs to predict a benchmark housing cost measure based on Aten's area price level index. The first four measures are calculated with U.S. Census Data, the fifth is based on HUD Fair Market Rents, and the sixth is the housing portion of the ACCRA Index. In 25 large metropolitan areas, the fourth measure predicts 86 percent of the variation in the benchmark index in 1990 and 85 percent in 2000. The fifth measure performs nearly as well. The paper concludes both are promising measures of living costs.