Evening star., 1937-05-22
HOME OWNERSHIP
PACE QU|CKENS
Building and Loan League
Notes Transfers of Es-
tab|ished Property.

Progress toward home ownership Is
fastening Its pace these days not only
by the revival of home building but
also by the increasing volume of
transfers by which homes are becom-
Ing once again the property Of a
family rather than mortgage
institution.
This development is cited by Harold
T. Donaldson, president of the United
States Building and Loan League, who
reported that during the first quarter
of this year, the savings, building and
loan associations found new family
owners for some 1880 homes which
had been decided to them in the bad
years. 1t is estimated from the bal
tions at the beginning of the year and
at the end of March that real estate
assets decreased by $65,000,000, So
per cent drop in this item
Meanwhile the total resources Of
the institutions apparently increased
about per cent during the quarter.
--- Figures Show Transfers.
Compared with the end of the first
quarter year ago, the real estate
holdings OF the associations had been
reduced S145000,OO0 by the re-
entrance of the American family into
the home ownership market. This
figure shows, however, Donaldson
pointed out, that the great step ahead
in the transfers of homes from the
associations to individuals came in the
last three months, which accounted
for nearly half of the activity in the
12-month period being considered.
When the buyer has sufficient
down. payment to warrant the asSo-
cations giving him title of the prop
erty and taking a mortgage on it, he
becomes a regular borrower from the
savings and loan institution eX-
planned the league president. He
begins making monthly payments on
the principal Of the loan just like the
other $4,000 who borrowed from the
savings and loan associations to build
houses during January, February and
March, and several thousand others
who in the same period bought already
built homes from somebody else with
the financing aid of the associations.
Where the buyer did not have the
down-payment required he bought the
house on contract from the associa-
ton. The asset item, real estate sold
on contract, increased 40 per cent dur
ing the first three months of 1887,
showing the large part which this
type of buying has played in advancing
home ownership"
Approach Mortgage Status.
1t was explained that when monthly
payments on the contract have de-
creased the amounts owed to the
point where the associations policy
will permit the family to take title to
the property and give a mortgage,
these assets will become mortgage
loans on the books of the associations.
Two or three years is the time usually
consumed in reaching this point.
THE present buyers have a much
likelier prospect of paying off the
debt and owning the home free than
the former builders or buyers of the
same property in the late tWenties
had" he suggests. This is because
they are buying the property at the
beginning of the rise in the cycle
whereas the former owners were going
into debt when the prosperity cycle
was on the wane, although unfortun-
ately few observers realized it."
In some areas the properties are
being transferred so rapidly from the
associations to new owners that the
policy on renting the houses has to
be modified, Donaldson said.
You cannot rent house to
family one month and then have
them move out the next month be-
cause you have sold the property and
want to give possession" he pointed
out. This removal of some Of the
rapidly-going properties from the
rental market is playing its part in
increasing the rents. 1t is part Of the
general upward movement of the
real estate cycle"