Evening star., 1932-02-07
COST OF BUILDING
HOME CUT FOURTH
New York StatlStician Makes
Estimate. Based on Prices
of tanG ana Labor.
~ the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK. February cit costs
about 25 per cent less to build an aver
age house today than it did two and a
half years ago.
L. Seth Schnitman, chief StatiStician
of the F. w. Dodge Corporation, made
this rough estimate today. based on eX-
tensive study of prices of land, labor
and materials.
It's good news to Phil and Jane, who
are going to be married in June, and
even now spend an occasional evening
sedately figuring on a pad and drawing
house plans. And TO Fred and Emily,
who are tired of apartment rent. and
know just the right spot for house
in the suburbs, where the baby can play
in the sunshine
This week the Building Trades En-
'ployers' Association, whose members en-
plOy l15 900 workers in New York and
Long Island, adopted a wage scale car
rying reductions Of from 25 to 80 per
cent for workers. The lower wages Will
be effective when present contracts with
organized labor expire on April 30.
Labor Plentiful.
Chief effects of this cut and similar
ones elsewhere, Schnitman explained,
will be in the metropolitan building
field. especially in unlOnized cities.
Wages actually being paid in the build
ing of small or medium sized houses
now arc very largely below union scales,
he said, and labor is plentiful.
In building materials, lumber has
taken probably the longest price tumble,
while brick has not fallen so far. Count
less varying factors had to be considered
N arriving at the rough estimate Of
25 per cent cost reduction. the StatiS-
tiCian pointed out For instance, an
importation of brick from Europe here
about l8 months ago, at prices as low
as $3.50 and 50 a thousand. had an i'm
mediate effect on the local market
where they were being sold for as much
as Sl8 to S22.
THE quoted price here now is about
si45O." he said but that doesn't mean
It is always paid. Prices these DAYS are
fixed pretty largely on the basis Of what
the seller can get
Two Stumbling Blocks.
Is there chance. then, in such a mar
ket of a great revival Of home building?
Or are the fallen prices merely signs
Of economic pCrVCrSitv which makes
things cheap when many cannot buy
at all?
Edward A. MacDougall, builder in
Queens Borough and chairman OF the
newly appointed Housing Committee Of
the National Association of Real Estate
Boards. sees two stumbling blocks TO
be removed before proper impetus can
be given the construction industry.
One is the nagging question OF real
estate taxes. disproportionately high,
economists say, and formidable for the
potential house owner to contemplate.
Legislatures of Is States already are
struggling with the problem. Those who
favor lowering real estate taxes are
handicapped by State deficits, which
call for increased tax burdens in gen.
eral. but even the consideration Of tax
revision plans is evidence Of favorable
sentiment. the builders believe.
Financing Is Problem.
MacDougall sees the financing ques-
ton as the other stumbling block. His
suggested remedy is the lOng-term
mortgage. for al least Is years, with
reasonable amortization payments after
the first five years.
On the MaCDougall committee, which
was created at the Midwinter meeting
of the national association in st. Louis,
Mo, January 90 are Benjamin Bills,
Chicago Robert p. Gerholz, Flint.
Mich; Harry Allen, San Francisco; H.
c. Thorman, San Antonio, Tex; G.. A.
Nichols Oklahoma City. and Justin
Matthews, Little Rock, Ark.