All occupied housing units which are not owner occupied, regardless of whether cash rent is paid by a member of the household. ("No cash rent" units, a subcategory of renter occupied, are separately identified in rent tabulations. Such units are generally one provided free by friends or relatives, or in exchange for the services of, for example, a caretaker, minister, tenant farmer, or sharecropoer.)

A house, apartment, mobile home or trailer, group of rooms, or single room occupied as a separate living quarter or, if vacant, intended for occupancy as a separate living quarter. Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live and eat separately from any other persons in the building and which have direct access from the outside of the building or through a common hall.

The occupants may be a single family, one person living alone, two or more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelated persons who share living arrangements (except as described in definition of Group Quarters, Persons In). For vacant units, the criteria of separateness and direct access are applied to the intended occupants whenever possible. If that information cannot be obtained, the criteria are applied to the previous occupants. Both occupied and vacant housing units are included in the housing unit inventory, except that recreational vehicles, boats, caves, tents, railroad cars, and the like are included only if they are occupied as someone's usual place of residence. Vacant mobile homes are included provided they are intended for occupancy on the site where they stand. Vacant mobile homes on dealers' sales lots, at the factory, or in storage yards are excluded from the housing inventory. Housing unit status was determined on a complete-count basis.

The monthly rent agreed to, or contracted for regardless of any furnishings, utilities, or services that say be included. Rent is shown for occupied units rented for cash and vacant units for rent. For vacant units, rent is the amount for the asked unit at the time of enumeration, and is sometimes labeled "rent asked." Contract rent is tabulated for "specified renter occupied" units, which excludes one-family houses on 10 acres or more. Respondents were to report rent only for the housing unit enumerated and to exclude any rent paid for additional units or for business premises. The rent amount for the unit is to be reported even if paid for by someone outside the household, or for some reason, not paid. Respondents who do not pay rent monthly are asked to convert the sum to a monthly average. In the computation of aggregate and mean rent, $35 is taken as the average of the interval "less than $50," and $550 is taken as the average of the interval "$500 or more." This item was asked on a complete-count basis.