[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 186 (Wednesday, September 24, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55031-55032]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-22412]


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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-Q1/SF.1, SOC-Q1/MF.1.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0110.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Burden Hours: 14,615.
    Number of Respondents: 22,200.
    Average Hours Per Response: 5 minutes.
    Needs and Uses: Government agencies and private companies use 
statistics from the Survey of Housing Starts, Sales, and Completions, 
otherwise known as the Survey of Construction (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 homebuilders, 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 CAPI software for all SOC data collection has been rewritten 
and modernized to work on laptop computers with the Microsoft Windows 
operating system. The new software has been used in the field since May 
2008. The new software provides the opportunity to modify the 
questionnaire to introduce new data items that are of interest to data 
users. After working with key data users and testing potential new data 
items, we identified seven new data items to be added to the single-
family questionnaire and three new items for the multi-family 
questionnaire. We request approval to add these questions to the 
electronic questionnaire in December 2008 to allow tabulation of these 
characteristics for buildings started, completed, or sold in 2009.
    The Census Bureau also worked with key data users to review the 
existing data items for relevance and determined that information about 
whether closing costs are included in the sales price is of limited 
usefulness because the dollar value of these costs is not collected. 
Data users had little interest in the data so the question has been 
eliminated.
    The previous SOC questionnaire software required that all 
characteristics of new single-family units be re-asked at time of 
completion to identify any changes that occurred during the 
construction process. Census staff studied the data and determined that 
the square footage of the house and basement were the only 
characteristics that changed significantly upon completion of the house 
and need to be re-asked. Data users requested updates to the sale 
price, contract price, and intent at time of completion, so these 
questions will also be re-asked. Because several questions will no 
longer be re-

[[Page 55032]]

asked, the overall length of the average interview will not change.
    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 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: Business or other for-profit organizations; Not-
for-profit institutions.
    Frequency: Monthly.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 9(b), 161, 
and 182.
    OMB Desk Officer: Brian Harris-Kojetin, (202) 395-7314.
    Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained 
by calling or writing Diana Hynek, Departmental Paperwork Clearance 
Officer, (202) 482-0266, Department of Commerce, Room 6625, 14th and 
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at 
[email protected]).
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to Brian Harris-Kojetin, OMB Desk Officer either by fax (202-395-7245) 
or e-mail ([email protected]).

    Dated: September 19, 2008.
Gwellnar Banks,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
 [FR Doc. E8-22412 Filed 9-23-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P