Evening star., 1928-12-30

houses were built Baltimore is only 40
miles from Washington, but houses In
the first six months of 1928 cost less
than half as much to build in the former
city. The figure for Baltimore is $4,0o1.
Now, a reason can be advanced for
the lower cost of dwellings in Los Ange-
les, for which figure of $3.847 (much
less than half the Washington cost is
given. In Los Angeles houses need not
have elaborate heating plants to meet
cold Winters. which they must in Wash
ington. They can be more fimsily built
also.
Perhaps more talk is heard about
the high cost of building in New York
than anywhere else and yet II is
below the Washington cost. No one
family houses were built in the
Borough of Manhattan in the first half
of this year, but TAO such houses were
built in the residential Bronx. Their
average cost was s6,939. more than
81 500 less than the average Washing
ton cost. In the outlying Boroughs Of
Queens and Richmond costs drop so
per cent
Capital Rentals Not High.
Cost of apartment houses, too, Is
high in Washington, being second only
to Manhattan Island costs. and well
above costs in all other boroughs of
Greater New York; about So 900 higher
on an average than Bronx, Brooklyn,
Richmond and Queens costs The cost
of apartment houses, allocated by the
number of separate apartments to give
the cost per family, in Manhattan was
S7014 in the first six months of 1923
and $5597 in Washington. The lowest
cost per family of apartment building
was in st. Louis, for which the hgure
| $2,063 is given.
| While the apartment house figure In
Manhattan is above that for Washing
| ton, it must be remembered that only
very expensive apartment houses are
| being built in Manhattan and on very
| expensive and highly taxed land. II
| the City OF New York Is taken as a
whole and the cost averaged 1t is found
| that Washington leads the entire coun-
| try in cost'of housing.
The Department of Labor has COM
piled no figures on rentals paid for
dwellings in general. 1t has only COW
cred wOrkingmens dwellings. But ref
erence to newspaper advertisements
reveal that, in spite of the lower cost
of housing in New York than in Wash
ington, rentals are generally higher in
the Metropolis than in the Capital.
The newcomer to Washington Will
DOL nave AlIukIle
tory places to live as the supply is
equal to the demand and the variety
adequate. In the last decade there
has been a marked exodus to the sub
urbs of Washington which have been
beautifully developed. On the out
skirts of the City of Washington in the
District of Columbia and, over the
State line into Maryland on the one
hand and across the Potomac River into
Virginia on the other. are to be found
populous communities. There are
thousands of artistically designed single
family dwellings and also far into the
suburbs there are large apartment
houses.
Avenues and boulevards connect
these suburbs with the center Of the
city. There are many street car lines
and an ever increasing number Of bus
lines
There is still another type of Wash
ington dwelling which is in great de-
mand. Old houses, some dating back
we'll over a century, have been re-
modelled, the smaller into modern single
| family dwellings and the larger man
sions into apartment houses. The re-
modelling has been largely restricted
| to installation of modern conveniences,
| added baths and the like, the beauties
of colonial architectural design being
| retained.