Evening star., 1924-09-06
LOWER RENTS CURB
BUILDING IN CITIES.
Increase in Lumber Orders
Due Largely to Repair
Work on Farms.
BY j. e. ROYLE.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK. September 6.-The
lumber mills of the country are
raising production and are receiving
an increased volume of orders. The
larger part of this recovery from
the slump of earlier this year is due
entirely to the farmer, who is praised
or blamed for pretty nearly every
trend of business in this country at
some time during the year.
City building has slumped. There
is no serious doubt of this fact,
although material men realize that
the number Of building permits is
sued. or even the amount of con-
tracts let in a stated district are
not prima facie evidence of build
ing activity or depression. Figures
of the Department of Commerce, COW
ering 36 states, indicate, however.
that building in rural and urban
districts together is running 10 per
cent above that of September and
1928
Ahead of Last Year.
Lumber orders to members of tho
eight leading lumber manufacturing
associations are nearly 80 per cent
heavier than at this time last year
The destination of these shipments
indicates plainly that the increased
footage will go into farm repairs,
requirements and new buildings. The
farmer in many sections now has his
crops harvested. and has begun to
get cash in return for them. His
hands and his dollars have naturally
turned to improvements which have
long been needed.
Nlnety-eight per cent of all farm
buildings in this country are of wood,
so the increase in lumber demand is
not surprising. The average farm
owner. it is estimated, buys more
than 1000 board feet of lumber a
year, a total throughout the country
of about thirteen to fifteen billion
feet. Total production of lumber in
this country in 1928. it is expected,
will be between forty and forty-five
billion feet. Even slight increase
in the percentage of farmer buying
must necessarily have a marked eff
feet on production.
Farmers Furnish Own Labor.
Farm building and repairs will not
put into circulation, however. the
Same amount of cash released by
city building operations. since much
of the labor will be done by the
farmer himself and his hired help.
Right now rural demand for ready
cut and framed houses. which can be
creasing tremendously.
Lumber prices are firm but they
have not advanced to extraordinary
levels. In fact. the low point since
the distress offerings of 1921 was
reached last month, but it is gener-
ally recognized that the day Of cheap
lumber is past. This commodity
today has to be hauled three times
as far as was necessary 90 years
ago. The Department of Agriculture
estimates that the average haul of
the lumber going into farm build
ings is 4S0 miles.
Lower Rentals Check Building.
The drop in rentals of some classes
of dwellings in the cities has done
much to check continuation of eX-
tenSive construction in large centerS.
This tendency has been specially
marked in the fairly expensive apart
mentS High priced apartments, rent
ing for about 500 a month, have
shown little change, and cheap apart
mentS have been equally stationary,
but for those between the two ex-
tremes. rents have been cut 10 to ID
per cent.
Easiness of the money market and
the low rate of interest at which
funds for construction purposes could
be obtained have had an effect on the
situation in the cities An increase
in interest rates would tend toward
forcing a reduction in real estate
values and a consequent reduction of
building costs. At present. however,
building costs show little change.