Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Survey of Housing Starts, Sales, and Completions (SOC), 73456-73457 [2020-25407]

Agencies

• Census Bureau
• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 223 (Wednesday, November 18, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73456-73457]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-25407]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Survey of Housing Starts, Sales, and Completions (SOC)

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the 
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and 
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of 
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on September 3, 2020 during a 60-day comment

[[Page 73457]]

period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public 
comments.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: Survey of Housing Starts, Sales, and Completions (SOC).
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0110.
    Form Number(s): SOC-QI/SF.1 and SOC-QI/MF.1.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for an Extension, 
without Change, of a Currently Approved Collection.
    Number of Respondents: 21,600. (We collect data for approximately 
21,600 new buildings a year. A builder or owner may be contacted 
several times based on how long the construction project takes. We 
estimate the average number of times we need to contact the builder or 
owner is 7.3239 times. Therefore, the total number of responses 
annually is 158,196.)
    Average Hours per Response: 5 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 13,183.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau is requesting an extension 
of the currently approved collection for 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.
    Census Bureau 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. The Bureau of Economic Analysis 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 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 organizations.
    Frequency: Monthly.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 131 and 
182.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0607-0110.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2020-25407 Filed 11-17-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P