[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 28 (Wednesday, February 11, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7575-7576]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-02730]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: Survey of Housing Starts, Sales, and Completions.
    Form Number(s): SOC-QI/SF.1, SOC-QI/MF.1.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0110.
    Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Burden Hours: 13,187.
    Number of Respondents: 20,400.
    Average Hours per Response: 5 minutes.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau is requesting an extension 
of the Survey of Housing Starts, Sales, and Completions, otherwise 
known as the Survey of Construction (SOC). Government agencies and 
private companies use statistics from SOC to monitor and evaluate the 
large and dynamic housing construction industry. Data for two principal 
economic indicators are produced from the SOC: New Residential 
Construction (housing starts and housing completions) and New 
Residential Sales. In addition, a number of other statistical series 
are produced, including extensive information on the physical 
characteristics of new residential buildings, and indexes measuring 
rates of inflation in the price of new buildings. These statistics are 
based on a sample of residential buildings in permit-issuing places and 
a road canvass in a sample of land areas not covered by building permit 
systems.
    The field representatives (FRs) mail forms SOC-QI/SF.1 and SOC-QI/
MF.1 to new respondents to complete. A few days later, the FRs either 
call or visit the respondents to enter their survey responses into a 
laptop computer using the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing 
(CAPI) software formatted for the SOC-QI/SF.1 and SOC-QI/MF.1 forms. 
The respondents are home builders, real estate agents, rental agents, 
or new homeowners of sampled residential buildings. FRs contact 
respondents multiple times based on the number of projects in the 
sample and the number of months required to complete the project.
    The Census Bureau uses the information collected in the SOC to 
publish estimates of the number of new residential housing units 
started, under construction, completed, and the number of new houses 
sold and for sale. The Census Bureau also publishes many financial and 
physical characteristics of new housing units. Government agencies use 
these statistics to evaluate economic policy, measure progress towards 
the national housing goal, make policy decisions, and formulate 
legislation. For example, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System uses data from this survey to evaluate the effect of interest 
rates in this interest-rate sensitive area of the economy. The Bureau 
of Economic Analysis (BEA) uses the data in developing the Gross 
Domestic Product (GDP). The private sector uses the information for 
estimating the demand for building materials and the many products used 
in new housing and to

[[Page 7576]]

schedule production, distribution, and sales efforts. The financial 
community uses the data to estimate the demand for short-term 
(construction loans) and long-term (mortgages) borrowing.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households; business or other for-
profit.
    Frequency: Monthly.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Sections 131 and 182.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#5817110a19070b2d3a35312b2b3137361837353a763d3728763f372e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5a1513081b05092f38373329293335341a353738743f352a743d352c">[email protected]</span></a> or fax to (202) 395-5806.

    Dated: February 5, 2015.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2015-02730 Filed 2-10-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P


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