U.S. Census 2000 Housing Units by Decade of Construction and Median Value - Oregon

This dataset depicts the percentage of housing units by the decade of their construction, and the median value of a subset of the housing units. This dataset was derived from official U.S. Census 2000 data products processed by the Conservation Biology Institute. These attributes are depicted at the Census Block-Group level, the finest spatial scale for which the underlying metrics are available. Areas with larger percentages of housing units constructed during 1990-2000 indicate areas that have experienced recent growth in residential development. In particular, areas that have experienced growth outside urban areas may be further evaluated for residential development in close proximity to publicly-owned areas (e.g., National Forests) or areas of high conservation value. The median value may be of interest for prioritization of development of conservation areas on private lands, given that high land acquisition costs can deter acquisition for conservation purposes. However, higher median values outside urban areas may indicate areas of high demand for residential development, such as areas of high scenic or natural resource value (e.g., proximity to public lands). This dataset can be masked using boundaries of private versus public lands, such as can be extracted from the Conservation Biology Institute's Protected Areas Database, to better refine the spatial distribution of areas available for residential development.