I was attempting to create a utility cost for housing, and I was interested in splitting up some of the data into seasons to show the expected increase in costs, but I have yet to find anything except SAMPLE. Although SAMPLE would work in theory, all of my data primarily focused on Maryland seems to be taken in January of every new year.
Question: is there a variable for months, seasons, quarters, et cetera?
I assume you are using the American Community Survey (ACS) data from IPUMS USA, but please correct me if I am wrong. While the ACS data are collected on a rolling basis throughout the year, the public use microdata sample released by the Census Bureau does not include timing information more detailed than the year when the data were collected (i.e., the month or quarter of data collection is not reported). You might explore the American Housing Survey as another option for exploring seasonal variation in utilities.