Evening star., 1936-12-12
HOME OWNERSHIP
VAR|ANCES SHOWN
Differences OF $1,000 in
Type for Similar Incomes
in Some Cities.

Showing that there are differences
Of as much as $1,000 in the type OF
home which families with the same
incomes can own successfully, de.
pending on the city where they live,
the United States Building and Loan
League indicated today some factors
which determine the trend.
The league has just completed an
analysis of the cities in the Financial
Survey Of Urban Housing in con-
junction with the per capita savings.
building and loan association assets In
each.
Morton BodAsh. executive vice
president Of the league. said that
yardsticks for measuring how much
property value certain family
income can purchase successfully will
always be found faulty when tried In
the human sphere.
"The data in the survey are par
ticularly significant where they show
that families of incomes between
81 900 and 81 500 annually could own
homes in cities up to at least 100000
population on the average, paying as
much as 3.3 times their annual in
come for the property" he said.
Training in Thrift.
Cities where families have been
trained in thrift habits, and especially
where this training has been incul-
Gated through institutions which pro-
vide for a home on the installment
plan, seem to have the best showing
in providing o high standard of home
for persons with incomes under $4,000
Q year. it was indicated.
The findings were, for example, that
Q family with an income of $l.250 .
year on the average could manage
to keep possession as owner-occupant
OF a s4,50o home in group Of cities
whose building and loan per capita
was $50, but that the same income in
o group of cities with $6l 80 per capita
In building and loan allows for only
Q $500 home in general.
Two groups of the cities where
we would expect to fnd living costs
proportionately higher in the main,
because they were large population
centers, permitted families to own
more pretentious homes than those
with the same income in the groups
Of cities classification smaller in
population" Mr.. Rodfish said. In
both cases there was decided margin
Of building and loan per capita as
sets in the cities where the better
homes were found possible on the
same income. This shows that the
building up of longtime systematic
savings habits plays q part in de-
termining how much o family with
modest means can pay for its home
as well as do living costs in the
community.
Property Purchase Guides.
I'VE can name general formulas
such as two or two and half of
three times the annual income as
guides for property purchase, but the
figures from this survey show signifl-
cant exceptions to all such rules. In
the group Of cities where the build
ing and loan per capita was highest,
those with population between $4,000
and 100000, we flnd families with In
comes as low as $3.50 and $1,000 a
year owning homes valued at an aver
age Of $4,000, or a. times the income.
Savings and loan institutions, because
Of the local nature of their activities,
can exercise these judgments on the
individual case in the locality with
out encountering many of the obvious
dangers an outside lender would run
into If he tried to help families in this
income range to home ownership"