By
Sarah F. Riley
HongYu Ru
Roberto G. Quercia
Center for Community Capital
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Prepared with financial support from the Ford Foundation
THE COMMUNITY ADVANTAGE PROGRAM DATABASE:
Overview and Generalization
Working Paper: August 2009
The Community Advantage Program Database:
Overview and Generalization
Sarah F. Riley
HongYu Ru
Roberto G. Quercia
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Abstract
The Community Advantage Program Database (CAPD) is a unique data source that
researchers can use to study the housing experiences of low-to-moderate-income and
minority households in the United States. The CAPD includes data from a longitudinal
panel survey of mortgage borrowers linked to monthly loan-level information and
contemporaneous market valuation data and credit scores. To date, the CAPD has been
used to examine a wide variety of financial and social topics for this population,
including wealth and asset accumulation, mobility, postpurchase counseling, loan
prepayment, neighborhood satisfaction, community involvement, and parental attitudes.
After discussing the scope of the data, we compare the key demographics of the panel
survey respondents to those of Current Population Survey respondents. To the best of our
knowledge, no other publicly available data source combines longitudinal borrower
survey data with comprehensive loan performance information.
Introduction
The Community Advantage Program Database (CAP Database, or CAPD)1 is a unique
database that combines information from the following three sources:
1. Community Advantage Panel Survey (CAP Survey, or CAPS)—an annual survey
of approximately 5,200 low-to-moderate-income and minority U.S. homeowners
and renters.
2. Loan-level data:—origination and monthly servicing information for all original
mortgage loans issued to homeowners participating in the CAP Survey.
3. Property valu