The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-12
Building Boom Hit Topeka in
Past Three Months.
Records of Building Permits
Hard for PrOfiteers to Read.
BOOM CONTINUES TO GROW
Since August 1, 100 Building
Permits Have Been Issued.
Nearly Equals Record of Previ-
Gus Seven Months Here.

that the domicile he has rented wsI
know him no more and he has to hunt
a new home by December will
find it hard to accept the statement
/ that there is a building boom on in
Topeka and that the boom extends TO
the building of homes. The landlords
who joined the profiteering brigade
during the war and have not yet re-
ceived their discharges, are also among
those who have not been notified that
there are really new homes being built
in Topeka suitable for human occupa-
ton. Rents continue to maintain or
outdo their previous heights
But the records of the city in the
matter of the issuance of building per-
mits are not to be denied, and the
records show that during the three
months ending October 81 there were
permits issued for the construction of
los new buildings in Topeka for addi-
tfons or alterations to sixty-eight
structures, and permits for the con
struction Of 100 garages. All this at a
cost of s365,425.
Nearly Equals Seven Months Record.
Compared with the record of build
ing permits issued for the months pre-
ceding this three months period and
ending with August 81, the perform
ance during the three months was
highly creditable. In the seven
months preceding, there were erected
only 10 new buildings. with 175 ad-
dftions, the new structures costing
$469,482
Thus it appears that during August,
September and October of 1921, there
were built only four fewer structures
than during the preceding seven
months, or $50 per cent as many. at
a cost of IS per cent as much money
Building Projects Increasing.
The figures on the building permits
projects is steadily increasing. There
were thirty-one in August, thirty
seven in September, and thirty-eig in
October.
Not only has the building activity
during the last three months exceeded
the activity of the first seven months
of this year, but it has far exceeded
the figures for the same months of
last year. This fact is true also of the
three-month period in 1921 as COM
pared with the same three months in
1920.
issued for the construction of but four
new structures, to cost $3.50, as COM
pared with the permits issued for the
of thirty-one new struc-
lures at cost of $6S,340 during Au-
gust of 1921.
issued permits for the construction of
fourteen new structures at a cost of
as compared with the issu-
ance of thirty-seven permits in Sep
TENDER Of 1921, for buildings to cost
s173, $50.
sued ten permits to build new build
ing at a cost of $92,550. During the
same month of 1921 there were issued
thirty eight new permits, for buildings
to cost 1928, 425.
Chiefly in Southwest Section.
The building boom is being staged
chiefly in the southern and western
portions of the city, so far as the new
dwellings are concerned. Hardly
block on some Of the newer streets on
the west edge of town is without
dwelling in course of construction or
being remOdeled.
A survey shows that in sections south
of Eighth avenue and west of Kansas
avenue, there are no less than seventy
two new dwellings for which permits
have been issued within the past three
months, and work is being carried on
on every one of them, it would seem
to the casual wayfarer in that section
of the city.
Building Material Is Cheaper.
The cost of building material has
been on a steady, if gradual, decline
for the past several months. That
fact and the additional fact that the
housing facilities had reached stage
of what chemists would call super
saturation, are probably responsible
for the increase in building.
Building costs are not yet down to
normal. The wages of the building
trades in Topeka have not been re-
duced one cent from the peak reached
during the war. 1t is the price of the
materials which has come down.
Property values are still inflated be-
yond the normal point. These facts
combine to make rents high, and
houses still hard to get, in spite of the
large number of families which have
found new homes during the past
summer.
But the family who rents its home,
and trembles for fear it will be ousted
with small warning and take up the
weary search again. is finding some
hope in the fact that building is go
ing on in Topeka. and that there is
evidence to the effect that building
will continue to go on until the hous-
ing situation has been returned to
somewhere near normal.
T0DEKRM KnTIuE Ia nugMR