Evening star., 1936-03-28
REPAIRS TO H0MES|
RESULT OF LOANS
$4,000 Urban Houses Held
Modernized Through
Use of Credit.

some 94O,O one ana Two laInliy
urban homes have been modernized
with the use of credit in the past year
and half, during which special en-
phasis and special loan arrangements
have been used to supplement estab-
lished sources of funds for remaking
homes. About one out of every four
teen farm residences in the country
= has thus been reconditioned.
This estimate comes from the United
States Building and Loan League,
which lists three main sources of the
1866, 100000 of credit making possible
this "better-homes movement" among
the property owners and the attendant
building trades employment.
Morton Bodf1sh, executive vice presi-
dent of the league. the national organ
F.. ization of the savings, building and
loan business. in explaining this study,
stresses the fact that only structural
repairs and improvements have been
included in the estimate, and the
F. H. A. modernization loan figures
have thus been adjusted for inclusion
In this estimate.
1--WE do not count every family which
installed a new heating system or
new refrigerator as having recondi-
toned its homes" he pointed out. I'm
these 940,000-odd houses which we
estimate to have been the object OF
some expenditure on the part of the
family since September. 1884, the roof,
cellar, outside walls, inside walls, floors
. or ceilings, attics or some nom -detach-
able part of the house has been re-
placed Or repaired"
The three sources Of credit listed as
providing for these repair and recon-
struction endeavors are the savings,
building and loan associations and CO.
operative banks; the banks and finance
companies using the F. H. A. modern
ization credit plan, and the recondi-
tioning division of the Home Owners
Loan Corp.
Each of these three has dealt with
o different type of repair and recon-
struction loan. in the main" COM
mented Mr. Bodfish. The Home Own
ers' Loan Corp, of course, has confined
itself to advances providing for re-
poration has taken over the mortgage
from some other financing agency.
These are cases where no private lend
ing agency could be expected to grant
credit, and thus the H. O. L. C's
reconditioning operations have filled
q decidedly important place in the
program. They have represented
minor expenditures in the main. the
average job contracted for under this
arrangement being reported by the
corporation as $19398. This source
of credit accounts for 345,812 of the
houses which have been done over
and has provided s65, ,587 $40 to take
care of these projects to date.
The 1000 savings, building and
loan associations under both Federal
and State charter have provided funds
for the making over of some 100000
homes. Their average loan is around
$780, demonstrating that the recon-
ditioning which has to do with the
structure of the house, the enlarge
rent of the home by the addition of
rooms. and similar job-making activ-
tiles which call for longer-term real
estate credit of the type customarily
provided by these associations, is still
being financed by them. Close to
s15o,000,000 in such reconstruction
loans have been placed on the associa-
tons books in the past year and a
half.
THE banks, commercial and indus
trial, and the finance companies which
have extended credit for home repairs
under the insurance plan embodied in
Title I of the national housing act
have been the source of home re-
conditioning money for about ABS 900
homes. This figure is lower than the
total reported by the F. H. A. in its
second annual report, because their
figure includes not only urban resi-
dental properties but commercial and
other kinds of property, and their
figure on number of homes and null
tiple residential units improved in
eludes some 48 per cent plumbing and
heating equipment and machinery in
etallations, which do not strictly come
within the limits of our study here.
The average amount of loan from one
OF these sources is $345. Thus it ap-
pears that the type Of reconditioning
financed here is the smaller JOB of
Ehingling the roof, putting on paint,
redecorating the interior. reflooring the
porch, chinking up flaws in the foun-
dation concrete, and the like. Making
the same adjustments for the volume
of F. H A. credit as we did above in
the number of loans, it develops that
about $15o,0o0, 900 of credit has been
extended to provide for these smaller
items In the remaking Of American
homes"
Mr.. Bodfish said that one of the
most satisfying features Of all this
credit extended to make over American
homes is that each of the financing in
etitutions is requiring monthly repay
Ynents on the indebtedness, so that
orderly liquidation of the debt is being
provided for.