New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-21
come Into the Country
Construction Seems High When
Figured on Dollar Basis
Fact Is Construction Is as Cheap as Before the War;
money linen bought More Than 1t Does To-day:
contractors Working Close to Pre-War Levels

number of bushels of wheat. His
Wheat to-day would bring him in the
New York market Approximately S13
500 In 1913 the same quality of wheat
would have sold for approximatelv
SS.4oo. The difference between these
Two amounts, S5,400, or IS per cent of
Vne 1913 price, represents very closely
She olHerence between the cost of a
house IN 1913 and in 1921. From the
point of view of the farmer, we see.
therefore, that his house costs him no
more to-day than it would have cost
nm IN 1918. The farmer probably
realizes this fact more clearly than
any other type of man in the COM
munlty, because he is used to doing
his thinking in terms of a bushel Of
wheat and not in terms of a dollar.
The rest of us forget that the dolla.
has been constantly varying quantity
tor the last seven years and for THAI
reason has not been an accurate meas
ure of values.
very interesting and instructive
chart has been prepared by Monks and
Johnson, architects and engineers, with
ofhces n New York and Boston, which
shows the variation in costs month by
month from the beginning OF 1913
to June, 1921, of the following items:
GAP Cost of building materials.
(h) Wages of building trades.
(c) Cost of completed buildings.
I'D Cost of all commodities COM
bined.
The peak of prices is shown on this
chart to have occurred in April. 1920.
which is probably somewhat later than
a. similar chart prepared for the New
York district alone would show. At
that time the increase in the four
items charted was as follows:
(a) Coct of building materials, 24O
per cent.
(b) Wages of building trades, SIS per
cent
(c) Cost OF completed buildings, 100
per cent.
{dl Cost of all commodities COM
blned, 175 per cent.
From April, 1920, to April. 1921. there
was a sharp parallel decline in items
A. c. and D, and considerably smaller
drop in item B. so that the various in
crease5 over the 1918 unit stood as fol
lows:
(a) Coct Of building materials, 100
per cent.
OBJ Wages of building trades, 81 per
cent.
Co Cost of completed buildings, SIS
per cent.
Cd Cost of all commodities com
oiucu, 10 per cent.
Since April of this year there has
been no further decline in the cost of
building construction. although the
commodity curve is still falling.
Prices Close to Prc-war Levels
1t must be remembered that the fig
ures used refer to the entire country.
Information available for the metro
poitan district would tend to bring the
cost Of completed buildings much
closer to the cost Of all commodities
combined. AS matter Of fact, actual
contracts have been let recently at
prices not more than IS per cent in
excess OF pre-war prices on the same
class of work This fact is undoubted-
~ explainable on the basis Of the crisis
which exists in the building industry
to-day and represents an abnormal and
unhealthy condition which cannot last
1t is probably safe to say however,
that in the neighborhood of New York
normal building prices to-day are not
more than so per cent in excess of the
prices which prevailed in 1918
All of which means that we are pay
ing for our buildings, just as we are
paying for our clothes and our grocer
les and the other things We have to
buy, with an inflated dolar-with a
dollar which is not worth the 100 cents
Of pre-war days, but which is worth
only siXtyseven Of those pre-war cop
rerS.