Evening star., 1936-10-03
HOME FINANCING
CONCERNS LARGE
Only One Out Of Five in
Nations 1900 Under
$3.50, 900 in Size.

About one out OF five Of the private
capital institutions financing Amer
ican homes today are under $3.50 900
in size. This becomes evident In the
report of the United States Building
and Loan League on the distribution
of resources of the 1000 thrift and
home financing institutions. which
head up in this organization, and hold
. third of the country's mortgages on
homes. The small financial institu-
tion is far from being swallowed up in
this business, 1t is shown. Local ma
ture of their business and their situa-
tion in hundreds of small towns as
well as cities accounts for the preva-
lent small association.
Probably no group of financial In
stitutions show such wide extremes
in size today as the cooperative
banks and building and loan associa-
tions, points out Raymond P. Harold,
Worcester, Mass, membership chair
man of the league, whose committee
conducted the analysis.
Eight Exceed $23,000,00o.
In the leagues membership there
are eight savings and loans institu-
tions with more than 23,OD0,000 in
resources including one with $64 ,000,-
900, the largest. There are 81 with
more than 100000 in assets, but
there are 1,465 member associations
which are under $250, 900. Mr.. Harold
indicated that most Of the non-afi-
lated institutions are the small ones
and hence the total number of such
sized associations is considerably larger
than their proportion of the member
institutions indicates. A majority of
the newly organized Federal associa-
tions are still in this small group. it
was pointed out.
About 80 home loans on the aver
age will be held by an institution of
S250,000 in assets, he said, indicat-
ing that even in smaller financial
bodies like these the diversification
which makes the safety of the build
ing and loan association as q mort
SdSO 4AANCotAAiCht SiCoVCk tllah tAAht VA
the single type of mortgage holding
by the individual is still there.
Many Above $1,000, O,oO0.
Associations between $1,000, 900 and
$3,000,000 are about as numerous as
those between half a million and a
million in assets. Mr.. Harold at
tributes this to the fact that once q
thrift and home financing institu-
ton gets to the half-million mark 1t
is apt to acquire certain attributes
which make for its more rapid growth,
such as full-time management, bet
ter developed advertising programs,
more carefully trained leadership.
Geography seems to have much to
do with the size Of the building and
loan associations and cooperative
banks. The third largest State in
building and loan assets. for example,
has no individual association larger
than S6,000,000. The largest State
in building and loan assets. on the
other hand, has four associations over
s10,000,000 Only two States West
Of the Mississippi have any $4,000
900 institutions and one States in
the Middle West has nine of all the
associations in this largest group.
The analysis Of the business which
Is coming into such prominence as
It swings into its first billion-do
lending year since 1928 was made as
basis for Tightening the lines of
til "a; g.
strengthen the concepts of sound
home financing now developing even
over 80 widely scattered an area.