Evening star., 1936-11-14
HOME
IS SEEN ON WANE
Type Of Structure Fails to
Keep Pace With Gen.
eraI Advance.

A conspicuous feature OF the home
building pickup witnessed in recent
months is the waning influence Of the
two-family dwelling as compared with
its part in the last period of building
revival and even in depression build
ing activity, the Home Building and
Home Owning Committee of the
United States Building and Loan
League points out. The committee.
headed by Edward C. Baltz of Wash
ington, feels that the new trend has
to be studied carefully with a view
toward determining the influence for
or against home ownership which IS
likely to be exercised by it.
If the bulk of families formerly
housed in two-family units are to be
provided for in one-family dwellings,
It's all to the good for home owner
ship, but If, on the other hand, the
bulk of the trade is going to multi
family housing, the cause OF home
ownership is set back by that much
and the me-financing groups will
have some responsibility about chang
ing the trend, Mr.. Baltz said.
Number Of Tw0-Family Houses.
Figures from the Bureau of Labor
show that two-family homes account
for Just about per cent OF all the
families provided for in new homes
built during the first eight months OF
1886 and the percentage hovered
around this level during 1885 as well.
When residential building took hold
In earnest after the last inactive
phase, in 1922, this type Of housing
accounted for % per cent of the fami-
lies provided for.
Building and loan associations,
while preferring, of course, the secur-
ity represented by the owner-occupied
one-family unit, have been inclined
to look upon the two-family home, or
the two-family unit with store at
tached, as the next best security"
said Mr.. Baltz I'm the past periods
of building the development of these
homes has been an important factor
in decreasing the cost Of shelter for
those who desired to own when the
cost of singlefamily unit was above
their purse level"
Observation of the building activity
registered for 1885 and the first half
of 1886 indicates that this year the
one-family home is gaining on the
multi-family dwelling in percentage
of new units provided During the
first six months of this year 48.5 per
cent of all new housing units in IS
largest cities reporting to the Bureau
of Labor consisted of the singlefamily
home. The July figures ran about the
same, while in August one-family
homes rose to So per cent of the new
dwellings.
Attitude of Builders.
Baltz gathered from these figures
that for the present. at least, home
ownership is not being penalized to
any great extent by the apathy Of
builders toward the formerly popular
two-family unit.
According to the census of 1880,
63.3 per cent of the urban families
were living in one-family homes" con-
tinued the report. family dwell
ings at the time of that census con-
stituted 16.5 per cent of the urban
population housing. In order to make
it possible for families to continue
owning their homes at the rates shown
six years ago they will have to move
toward a greater percentage of one
family homes in the residential build
ing of the next few years than We had
at any time during the revival which
lasted from 1922 through 1929"