Residential Foreclosures in the City of Buffalo, 1990-2000 - Federal ...

Appendix A: Data Collection and Sampling
Primary data for our study were collected from three sources: the Buffalo Law Journal,
Erie County Civil Court foreclosure records, and the Erie County property database. The
trend in foreclosures from 1990 to 2000 was determined by a 100 percent count of
foreclosure judgments reported in the Buffalo Law Journal. The characteristics of
foreclosures in 2000 were based on a representative sample of civil court and property
records. Of a reported 804 foreclosure judgments in 2000, we eliminated 26 because of
inaccurate addresses or geocoding problems, resulting in a sampling universe of 778.
A sample was taken from each community to enable comparison of foreclosure
characteristics in 2000. Sizes ranged from 30 to 60 based on total foreclosures in each
community, and resulted in a total sample of 305. In 20 cases, the foreclosure process had
been stopped, leaving a total of 285 foreclosures in 2000, for an overall sampling rate of
37 percent. Community sampling rates ranged from 31 percent to 55 percent. For Buffalo
as a whole, reported data have been weighted to reflect the percentage of all foreclosures
in each community and to correct for differences in community sampling rates. An
overview of sampling characteristics is presented in the table.
Sample Characteristics
Year 2000 Percent of Foreclosures Sampling Rate
Community
Foreclosures Total Sampled (Percent)
Ellicott- Masten 53 7 29 55
Riverside 55 7 29 53
North Buffalo-Elmwood 62 8 26 42
North East 145 19 57 39
West Side-Central 103 13 33 32
East Side 89 11 28 31
East Delavan 176 23 54 31
South Buffalo-River 95 12 29 31
Buffalo total 778 100 285 37
Sources: Erie County Civil Court records; author's calculations.
Because data from civil court and property records are sampled, the data may contain
statistical errors. However, due to the high sample rates, data for individual communities
and for the city as a whole should be relatively accurate. Still, statistical errors limit the
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