Evening star., 1935-12-28
ID. C.. BUILDING ACTIVITIES
SHOW BOOM.LIKE GAINS
Home Construction Features With All
Phases of Business Sharing Increases.
Continuation of Upward Surge Seen.

suburban territories than In the Dis
trict proper. Arlington County, Va,
and Montgomery County. Md. wit
messed the greatest construction ac-
tivity in their history, exceeding even
the boom building years of 1925 and
1926. Alexandria, likewise, had its
boom in both new building and mod
erniZation of numbers Of its old houses,
many of which had been unoccupied
for years.
Building and loan institutions in the
District increased their assets by ap-
proxinately $9,O00,000 during 1885,
William S. Quinter, secretary of the
District Building and Loan League,
revealed. Almost all of the institu-
tions were forced to turn money away.
The increase in assets In 1884 was
about S5,0O0,0o0. The associations of
the District League now have 1o1, 500
investing members, an increase Of
$500 during the year.
5000 Loans Made.
The building and loan associations
made 5000 loans for home ownership
during the year. The total amount
loaned was about $24,000,000. This
figure is about 100000 more than
was invested for home ownership last
year. The assets of the associations
at the present time are estimated by
Quinter at $104,000,000.
One of the best indications that
Washington is in an improved eco
nomic condition is furnished by Col
lector of Taxes Chatham M. Towers,
who says that collections for the year
have been far better than in the last
few years. The annual real estate tax
sale will be held January z to IA and
Chatham said the list of properties Of
fered will be much smaller than last
year, when great improvement over
other depression years was recorded.
In assessed valuation, District real
estate stands today slightly above the
level Of a year ago. Assessments of
Tax Assessor William A. Richards for
the fiscal year 1886 on land and i'm
provements total $1,131, ,798, 1884, as
compared with $l,130, 100000 for the
fiscal year 1885. The amount of taxa
ton derived from real estate during
the current year is $16,976,976, which
is slightly more than $4,000 more
than last year. The tag rate for both
years was $3.50 per 500 assessed val
uation.
1886 Outlook Favorable.
Real estate experts forecast that
private construction in 1886 will reg
lister further improvement. They be-
lieve the boom in small homes will
continue and that the coming year
will witness a revival in construction
OF larger apartments and Office build
ings. There was little activity in the
erection of larger structures in 1885.
The $1,000, 900 Acacia Mutual Life In
surance Building, now under construc-
ton was the largest private permit
issued and the only large office build
ing projected. The addition to the
Kennedy Warren Apartments was the
largest residential structure for which
a permit was issued during the year.
Plans have been made for a number
of large apartments and it is believed
that construction Of major projects
will be started next year.
An analysis of the month-by- month
totals for building construction during
1885 reveals that September was the
peak month, with a valuation of
$3,045,265. The permit for erection
Of the new Acacia building was issued
in September.
The valuation Of construction this
(see BUILDING, Page s.