Evening star., 1936-05-02
RENTING FAMILIES
HELD SALES FIELD.
Building Loan Committee
Report Cites Increases in
Rents in Two Years.

About 100000 modest income
urban families. which are today pay
ing anywhere from $3.50 to $3.50 a
month for rent more than they were
two years ago, constitute the most
fertile ground for implanting the
home-ownership idea at the present
time.
Drawing this conclusion from the
decline and subsequent upward trend
of rents on average dwellings during
the last six years since the census
takers found out about city rents, the
Home Building and Home Owning
Committee of the United States Build
ing and Loan League says that the
psychological moment has come for
further increasing the percentage Of
city dwellers who own rather than
rent. There are 1000 building and
loan associations, it is pointed out,
which make home ownership possible
on the monthly installment plan and
their speciality in mortgage lending
is in homes of price range which
could be afforded by these 100000
families.
Figures Show Increase.
The census of 1880 showed 3,19l ,435
families living in homes for which
they paid rentals Of between $50 and
$50 a month. During the next three
years there was a steady decline in
the cost of their shelter, so that by
the low point in January, 1884, rentals
on the same dwellings would average
about $40 to S34. Assuming that in
the main these families have stayed
in the same houses or in houses Of
similar quality. they are now paying
somewhere from $25 to $42 month
on the basis of average rent rises
during the past two years, indicates
H. T. Donaldson, Lansing, Mich,
chairman of the leagues Home Own
ing Committee.
These people are beginning to see
that the rise in cost of their shelter is
not going to stop here, according to
all indications" said Donaldson. For
this reason we find more interest in
property ownership among this group
today than we did year ago and by
the end of the year we can count on
anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent of
them being definitely interested in
buying property"
Increase in Home Owners.
Donaldson points out that there was
steady rise in the percentage Of
urban homes owned by their occupants
in the two decades ended in 1880 but
feels that great progress will have to
be made in the last five years of the
current decade if the country is to
maintain or increase the home-owner-
ship percentage BY 1880, 45.2 per cent
Of the urban homes we're owner-occu-
pied as contrasted with 37.1 per cent
in 1910.
"The effect of the great real estate
ana business dehation which charac-
teri0ed 1880 to 1885 has undoubtedly
been to decrease the percentage OF
owner occupancy in the cities and ii
would not be surprising if it were
down to the 40 per cent from which
we started upward in 1920; in other
words, at least 100000 homes have
changed from owner to rental status
during this period either through sale
abandonment or foreclosure" said the
committee chairman. There have
been 100000 one-family homes built
during this period and there is the
probability that the vast majority of
these are still owner-occupied since
ordinarily new houses are not built to
be rented. This still leaves us 1000
homes to be changed again into owner
occupancy before we will even be back