Evening star., 1937-12-18
EUROPE EMBARKED
ON HOME BUILDING
America Has Lesson to
Learn on Taxes and
Financing.

q book entitled New Homes in Old
Countries" a description Of the great
home building movement in England,
Sweden, Germany and Italy, written
by Herbert U. Nelson, executive vice
president of the National Association
OF Real Estate Boards, and his wife,
Marion Lawrence Nelson. 1t is the
first book on the subject which was
written conversationally for the gen.
eral reader from an authoritative
background Of this countrys own real
estate experience.
The book is lively travelogue of
family motor trip of some 10000 miles
IN nine countries of Europe and of
conversations with leaders of the
housing movement, both governmental
and private: builders, manufacturers,
hnanciers, city planners, cooperative
building societies and wayside home
owners. The volume was published in
Chicago by the national association.
Consider Financing.
The authors discuss a problem that
Is causing great concern in this coun-
try, that Of getting similar home
building movement under way. In this
connection, the authors observe:
Certainly if the old countries can
have new homes, young America can
have them, but the great new move
ment for home ownership in Europe
has as its foundation conditions we
have not yet created for ourselves in
respect to Cd financing, (2) taxes.
The first two requirements for anv
housing and home-ownership program
OF the kind that is making current Eu-
ropean history would have to be the
lifting Of half the tax load from homes
and the cutting in two of financing
charges"
AS one way to do this Mr.. Nelson
advanced a proposal as thought
provoking as it is simple. 1t would
tie together our two great current
movements in this direction. The
suggestion is for Federal registration
OF bona fide homes held as home
steads, urban or rural, to give them
such status as would lower the cost
of home building money and take
from homes the fear of tax confisca-
tion.
Other quotations from the volume
follow
THE Swedes have a name for it."
the authors observe AN owned home
Is called by them a 'fastighet.'
'Fastighet' means security.
inspires Feeling of Safety.
THE word is not an accident. 1t
Is rooted in the deep convictions of
people who believe that a nation of
nome owners is strong in times of
national and political contention, and,
In times Of personal misfortune, to
safeguard the things in life he most
prizes. Not only in Sweden is this
impulse apparent, but in Europe as
whole.
There is new Europe emerging.
The pride Of home ownership is sup
planting the pride in arches raised
for the march of victorious troops,
palaces built to satisfy the whims of
bygone rulers, huge parks where the
kings deer used to roam, gardens
laid out for the pleasure of frivolous
courts. Out of shacks and huts and
slums the common people are pouring
into modern apartments and garden
homes.
ITO create nations of home owners
is the definite objective of England,
Sweden, Germany and Italy, and the
policies of most Of the European gov
ernments are being directed increas-
1ngly toward the encouragement of
home ownership. In the comparatively
poor and tiny country of Sweden, with
only 100000 inhabitants, almost
$4,000 units in the low-cost housing
field have been added during the past
few years. In England since the war
100000 new homes have been built.
Germany, like England, is producing
more than 100000 new dwelling units
each year and reconditions others at
similar speed. Such figures, in the
light of our own lethargy, are
startling.
New Thinking Required.
ITO start and carry out a national
rehousing effort on the foundation of
home ownership requires some fresh
thinking. For two generations Amer
leans have become accustomed to the
penalties imposed upon homes, so that
they are assumed to be immutable and
inherent IN our economic system. But
the nations of Europe are proving to
us that these handicaps can be re-
moved, and that when they are re-
moved, business as whole does not
suffer.
The first two requirements for any
housing and home ownership program