Rent_Data_RFI_2019_pl.doc

US DOL / BLS / OPLC / CPI

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Transaction Rents for Residential Housing Units

May 14, 2019 This Request for Information (RFI) by the U.S. Department of Labor the Consumer Price Index

(CPI). BLS’s CPI program requires data for transaction rents for residential housing units. Sources Sought Notice for Request for Information (RFI) No 1625DC-19-N-00009. The proposed acquisition classified under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 518210 - Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services (Size Standard of $32.5 Million).

DISCLAIMER:

This Request for Information/Sources Sought Notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this Request for Information/Sources Sought that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this Sources Sought Notice.

Instructions for Potential Offerors:

1. Please review the below overview of the requirements and respond if you are an interested party.

2. Include both a capabilities statement and complete all sections of the Market Research Questions. Your response should not exceed 10 pages for each business.

3. Both large and small businesses are encouraged to participate in this market research. Joint ventures or teaming arrangements are encouraged and are up to each industry partner. Multiple teaming arrangements are acceptable. Please express your intentions in the questionnaire and capabilities package. If applicable, please specify your small business classification in any response.

4. If, after reviewing this document, you desire to participate in this market research request for information, you should reply via email with the corresponding questionnaire responses and your capabilities statement to Graves.Kelly@bls.gov no later than 12:00 pm EST Friday, May 22, 2019. Proprietary information should be clearly marked. All submissions shall be sent via e-mail. The electronic format may be in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) or compatible with Microsoft Office suite of software.

I. Background The Bureau of Labor Statistics has an ongoing interest in market data with which to analyze, evaluate, and improve the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Specifically, the BLS is seeking detailed data for transaction rents for residential shelter as listed in the Scope of Work.

The CPI is a Federal Principal Economic Indicator and is constructed using data collected from both households and business establishments. Because of the importance of the CPI, it is critical that the component indexes are accurate, timely and relevant. To assure the accuracy and relevance, the BLS periodically examines the results of its surveys in order to benchmark processes and products and to improve index methodology for its surveys. The data requested in this Statement of Work will be used for the following examinations:

· BLS will validate the CPI database by examining shelter specifications (location, type of structure, square footage, etc.) in the CPI database with corresponding specifications from secondary source data of transaction residential rents.

· BLS will evaluate collection documents used for CPI rent data to insure that they account for the universe of residential shelter items. The data for transactions rents residential shelter service will provide input for assuring that the CPI rent data collection documents are consistent and complete descriptions of the items available for sale in the US market.

· BLS will inspect the transaction residential rents data for completeness, consistency and accuracy as well as documenting differences between it and CPI rent data.

· BLS will compare the distribution of housing units for the transaction residential rents data to the distribution of housing units selected and collected for pricing in the CPI using metrics such as frequency, distribution, mean, median, and skewness as well as documenting these comparisons using text, charts and tables.

· BLS will produce a subset sample from the transaction residential rents data that is matched to the CPI sample of about 50,000 renters by street address.

· BLS will produce rental price indexes (at least at the US level) for the matched transaction residential rents data using index construction methods as close as possible to the CPI rent and owner’s equivalent rent indexes.

· BLS will use the full set of transaction residential rents data to construct rent indexes for small geographic areas (say PSU level) using index construction methods as close as possible to the CPI rent and owner’s equivalent rent indexes.

· BLS will use the full set of transaction residential rents data to construct rent indexes using exploratory methods other than what those currently used in the CPI.

II. Scope of Work The BLS is looking for at least 24 months of transaction rent data starting in 2019 which may lead to ongoing delivery through time. There is also interest in consecutive years of historical transaction rent data going back 5 years or longer. The transaction rent data should cover each of the eight Census regions and the total U. S. level. In addition to the national and regional levels, the BLS may also consider data at the local level for specific cities. Data values required from the vendor include:

a. Control Number

b. Address (Census can determine the best format for the address, e.g. this may be multiply columns for street, city, state, zipcode). Note that this address field should come from the sample file NOT from the CAPI file.

c. Housing value estimate

d. Housing unit rent

e. Number of Rooms

f. Number of Beds

g. Number of Baths

h. Square footage

i. All other housing characteristics available

III Market Research Questions for Vendors to answer General Questions:

1. How quickly can data be delivered and what is the turnaround for the most current data (could April data be delivered in May, June, or when)?

2. In what formats could the data be provided (text files, database access, etc.)?

3. What kind of support is available to answer questions about the data? Is technical support available for problems with the database?

4. How complete is the data you provide? What percentage of values are blank or missing?

5. How do you sample your data?

6. Do you provide discounts for older data (say more than two years old)?

7. What percentage of the market is covered by your data?

8. Does the U.S. level data depend upon, include, or require projection factors to adequately represent the U.S. market?

9. Can you provide pricing for current and historical data?

Questions about the residential rental housing unit and its transaction rent:

1. Can you supply information about the residential rental housing unit’s owner?

a. If so, is the rental unit publically owned (i.e., federal, state or local)?

b. If so, is the rental unit institutionally owned (i.e., educational, healthcare, assisted living, correctional, other)?

c. If so, is the rental unit commercially owned (i.e., international, national, or regional)?

d. If so, is the rental unit privately owned (i.e., name or location of owner?)

2. Can you supply information about the residential rental housing unit’s tenant?

a. If so, is this a new or existing tenant?

b. If so, how long has the tenant occupied the rental unit?

c. If so, how many tenants occupy the rental unit?

3. Can you supply information about whether the residential rental housing unit is subject to rent control or not?

a. If so, does the residential transaction rent reflect rent control?

4. Can you supply information about whether the tenant in the residential rental housing unit receives a rent subsidy or not?

a. If so, is the rent subsidy reflected in the residential transaction rent?

b. If so, can you supply the amount of the rent subsidy?

c. If so, can you supply the source of subsidy?

i. Government subsidy?

ii. Tenant work for the landlord subsidy?

iii. Senior citizen subsidy?

iv. Other subsidy?

5. Can you supply information about whether the residential transaction rent data includes the cost of utilities or not?

a. If so, is the cost of utilities reflected in the residential transaction rent?

b. If so, can you supply the total amount of the utility costs?

c. If so, can you supply the source and dollar amount of the utility costs?

i. Heating fuel costs such as electricity, natural gas, oil or alternative fuel?

ii. Hot water costs such as electricity, natural gas, oil or alternative fuel?

iii. Water costs?

iv. Sewer cost?

6. Can you supply information about whether the residential housing rental unit provides vehicle parking or not?

a. If so, is there a charge for parking at the rental unit or not?

b. If so, is the charge for parking reflected in the residential transaction rent or not?

c. If so, can you supply the type of parking?

i. Garage parking?

ii. Off street parking?

iii. Street parking?

7. Can you supply information about whether the residential housing rental unit has air conditioning (AC) or not?

a. If so, can you supply the type of AC?

i. Central?

ii. Thru-the-wall AC unit?

iii. Window AC unit?

iv. Other AC unit?

b. If the rental unit has AC but not central, can you supply the number of AC units?

8. Can you supply information about whether the residential housing rental unit has any extra or additional charges including but not limited to:

· General housing unit / association fees

· Pay TV fees

· Garbage / recycle collection fees

· Gym / health club / pool fees

· Maintenance fees including yard

· Pet fees including pest control

· Recreation fees including

· Laundry / dry cleaning fees

· Membership fees

a. If so, is the extra charge reflected in the residential transaction rent or not?

Please review and respond to the following questions regarding business size.

· Please indicate your business classification for NAICS code 518210 (Size Standard of $32.5 Million) below:

Other Than Small Business Small Business

· If your business classification is Small Business, do you anticipate remaining under the size standard of $15 Million for the next two years?

No Yes

· If your business classification is Small Business, do you qualify under any of the following certification programs and socio-economic categories?

HUBZone

Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Women Owned Small Business (WOSB)

8(a)

· Please indicate that you can complete all of the requested tasks listed in their entirety outlined in this RFI. Note: BLS is not interested in a vendor’s abilities to complete only some aspects of a specified task.

IV. Deliverables

1. Provide BLS with a monthly data file that contains the required information described in this section II above.

2. Provide BLS with answers to all questions in section III above.

3. Ongoing support through the end of the contract period to answer questions BLS may have about the delivered data. This support may be made available through telephone, email, power point, etc.

Delivery Method: The data shall be provided in a common electronic file format, such as delimited ASCII files, Excel workbooks, SAS datasets, etc. File names should somehow correspond to the month and year that the data was extracted.

V. Period of Performance

1. The period of performance shall be two years from the contract award date with three option years.

This information will be used for market research purposes only and will not be used as a part of the source selection evaluation. All information received will be protected and safeguarded as ACQUISITION/SOURCE SELECTION SENSITIVE in accordance with FAR Part 2.101 and 3.1074, Procurement Integrity. Request you submit any input you have by e-mail to Graves.Kelly@bls.gov no later than 12:00 pm EST Friday, May 22, 2019. Please be advised that telephone inquiries will not be accepted. Please note, this is not a request for proposal.