Housing Policy Briefing: June 2013

The federal Office of Management and Budget recently announced new delineations for the nation’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas, which are used to track building permit activity and housing data. Major changes to MSA definitions take place every 10 years, when population counts and commuting patterns are revised following the decennial census. Twenty-three areas were designated as MSAs for the first time, including 10 in the South, five in the Northeast, five in the West, and three in the Midwest. Pennsylvania added four new MSAs, the most of any state.


The new MSAs are the following:

• Albany, Ore.

• Beckley, W.V.

• Bloomsburg-Berwick, Penn.

• Carbondale-Marion, Ill.

• Chambersburg-Waynesboro, Penn.

• Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, Ala.

• East Stroudsburg, Penn.

• Gettysburg, Penn.

• Grand Island, Neb.

• Grants Pass, Ore.

• Hammond, La.

• Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort, S.C.

• Homosassa Springs, Fla.

• Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, Hawaii

• Midland, Mich.

• New Bern, N.C.

• Sebring, Fla.

• Sierra Vista-Douglas, Ariz.

• Staunton-Waynesboro, Va.

• The Villages, Fla.

• Walla Walla, Wash.

• Watertown-Fort Drum, N.Y.

Several urban areas lost their MSA status. In some cases, the counties affected were absorbed by another MSA. For example, the two counties that are home to Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, N.Y., now belong to the New York City MSA. The MSAs that lost their status are the following areas:

• Danville, Va.

• Holland-Grand Haven, Mich.

• Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, N.Y.

• Palm Coast, Fla.

• Sandusky, Ohio

Builders and property owners who make use of government housing programs should be aware that these MSA designations affect the metropolitan-based system of income limits and fair market rent determinations. But it will be at least a year before they feel the effects of these definition changes.