Why did Freddie Mac change its definition of metro areas for the MSA series?
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas for purposes of collecting, tabulating, and publishing Federal data. Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical area definitions result from applying published standards to Census Bureau data. In June 2003 the U.S. Census Bureau released new metro area definitions in accordance with the 2000 Decennial Census data to replace the standard metropolitan area definitions that had been based on the 1990 Decennial Census. Software vendors have recently made geocoding software available with the new definitions. More details of the OMB bulletin can be found at the following web site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/bulletins/b03-04.html. Starting with the 2Q 2005 release of the CMHPI Freddie Mac has decided to use the new metropolitan area definitions for its MSA series – however, a micropolitan series will not be made available due to data samples that are too small for statistical robustness in tho
