Evening star., 1937-05-29
LARGE AND SMALL
CITIES BUILDING
Activity Prominent in Places
Where Savings Funds
Are HiQher.

The IA largest cities, plus those
which range from 10000 to 100 900 in
population, are the champion home
builders this year and have increased
their percentage of the total resi-
dental construction substantially over
last year. ..
The United States Building and
Loan League, analyzing the trends of
home building as revealed in the Bu-
reau of Labor Statistics, draws
parallels between the location of the
bulk of savings and loan association
assets in the Nation and the rising
tide Of home building. The cities over
100000 and the smaller cities under
100000 have between 81 and SIS per
cent of all savings and loan resources
in the country and they are putting
up about IS per cent of this years new
homes. Approximately slab 900, 900
OF building and loan assets are in the
largest cities, and another S1,725, ,000,-
900 are in the smaller group of cham
pion builders.
A further item in the parallel is
the fact that 141 of the GA associa-
tions which have been chartered in
the last three years are in these two
groups of cities.
Other Cities Drop.
Harold T. Donaldson, president of
the league, calls attention to the de-
crease in percentage of new home
building taking place in the group Of
cities between 100000 and 100000.
During the two months of 1886 theirs
was about % per cent of the total Of
new dwelling units erected, and this
year it has dropped to 16 per cent,
according to the Bureau of Labor's
first two months count. An equally
significant drop has taken place in the
percentage of the new building in
towns under 10000, but is not con-
sidered so battling.
THE lack of tendency to ex-
pand, on the part of most small towns,
would make it simpler for them to
supply their housing needs in year
or two of building and then to taper
of in comparison with the increasing
activity of population centers. This
can scarcely be the explanation in
the cities between 100000 and 500,-
OO0," he claims.
Rising Costs Factor.
"Opinion of the savings and loan
executives in many of these cities is
that rising building costs have struck
them much more heavily than they
have so far affected the cities smaller
than 100000" the league president
said. The still larger cities are meet
ing that emergency by increasing their
percentage Of apartment buildings to
total residential construction, when
compared with last year. For in
stance the total residential building
in the first two months of this year
included 1927 per cent apartment
units, as compared with 343 per cent
for like period of last year.
Even tWo-family homes which still
lag behind the parade for home build
turn from 4.56 per cent of early last
years total to 6.l per cent of this
years. Both of these increases have
come in the very large cities rather
than in the group between 100000 and
100000. The latter class of cities is
still fighting the battle of home con-
struction against the increasing odds
Of one-family home building COSTS"
Donaldson also thinks that even
more Of the home building can be
traced to metropolitan areas than
these figures first indicate So many
of the suburbs of the largest cities
are listed in the census as towns of
10000 up to $4,000 and 10000 that
the building going on here would come
technically within the smaller group
of cities. but would actually be part of
the metropolitan area building trend.
Many Of the newly chartered savings
and loan institutions are in the subur-
ban towns which previously depended
entirely upon the central city finan-
cial district for their home mortgage
money, he said.