I would like to find out the official government definition of a
“home”, as used in housing statistics such as “single-family home”,
“housing starts”, etc.

Can a “home” just as easily be a condo unit, apartment home, etc., in
addition to a traditional stand-alone house ...?  (In which case, a
single building of condos, for example, might count as multiple
“housing starts”, etc. ...?)

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Clarification of Question by rnd13-ga on 31 Oct 2002 12:33 PST

I neglected to mention that I'm referring to the U.S. government.

Hi! Thanks for the interesting question.

The document presented here is in PDF file so you will need the Adobe
Acrobat Reader to read it. In case you haven’t installed it yet here
is a link so you could download The Adobe Acrobat Reader
(http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html).

According to the US Census Housing Survey Website, a housing unit is
defined as follows:

"A housing unit is a house,apartment, group of rooms,or single room
occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters. Living
quarters is a general term that includes both housing units and group
quarters. Living quarters include structures intended for residential
use (such as a house,
apartment building, boarding house, or mobile home). Living quarters
also include the following, but only if they are occupied as usual
residences: (a)places such as tents, caves, boats, and railroad cars;
and (b)structures intended for nonresidential use (such as rooms in a
warehouse where a guard lives). Living quarters exclude quarters being
used entirely for nonresidential purposes,such as a store,an office,or
quarters used for storing business supplies,machinery,or agricultural
products."

"Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live and
eat separately from any other people in the structure and that have
direct access from the outside of the structure or through a common
hall, lobby, or vestibule
that is used or intended for use by the occupants of more than one
unit or by the general public. This means that the hall,lobby,or
vestibule is not part of any unit but must be clearly separate from
all units in the structure. For, vacant units,the criteria of
separateness and direct access are applied to the intended occupants
whenever possible. If the information cannot be obtained, the criteria
are applied to the previous occupants."

This official definition could be found on page 10 on the document of
definitions issued by the US Census Housing Data. Click on the
following link to get the official definition of a housing unit and of
other terms which relates to housing statistics.

"Appendix A.
Definitions"
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/ahs/ahs01/appendixa.pdf 

I found the document from the US Census Housing Survey Website.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/ahs.html

Search terms used: 
“Housing Statistics"

I hope these links would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
you would need further information.

Thanks for visiting us.

Regards,
Easterangel-ga