Evening star., 1938-07-16
Building
Continued From First Page.)

retarded by any fundamental ailment
OF the industry the association expects
that recovery will come rather sud-
denly.
Undersupply Of Dwellings.
The report stated that an undersup-
ply Of one-family dwellings exists in
as much as II per cent of suburban
areas, and an undersupply Of apart
ments in AZ per cent of these areas.
The shortage at the present time is
greatest in the smaller cities. Inclu-
sion Of downtown urban sections brings
down the undersupply of dwelling for
the whole country to Al per cent.
Residential rents have been de-
creased from to 10 per cent in a
majority of cities, though in a COM
paratively large number of urban Sec
tions they have been increased by
approximately the same percentage.
Taking the country as a whole, rents
for apartments are a shade higher
than in 1887, and for one-family
dwellings are a fraction lower.
In the 244 cities with combined
population of 20,511 ,484) which at
tempt to estimate the amount OF new
building in their community the aver
age amount of construction of single
family dwellings in the period jan
uary to June / has been one house
for every lib persons, or one for
every 279 urban families. OF the 244
cities, eight cities state they have
had no new dwelling construction
whatever. In the remaining cities
the building rate has been one for
every 1,10f persons, or one for every
275 families.
One for Every 900.
The associations survey Of q year
ago showed the national average for
the corresponding months of 1887 (the
most active half Of the year, to have
been one single family house for every
900 persons, or one for every 225 ur-
ban families.
Geographically, the white spot of
dwelling construction is in the South
west region, where the rate has been
one new house for every 402 persons,
or approximately one for every 100
families. The Southeast States are
next with one dwelling for every BIT
persons, or one for every 204 families.
The Northwest region is third with
one for every Its persons, or one
for every 294 families. On the other
hand, the rate in the Great Lakes re-
gion is one for every 2,097 persons. For
cities Of the Central Atlantic region 1t
is one new dwelling for every 1882 per-
sons; for the South Central region, one
for every 1926 persons; for the North
Central States. one for every 1875
persons; for New England, one for
every 1852 persons. As noted above,
the region of most rapid construc-
tion is producing more than five times
as many new detached houses per
population as is the region with the
slowest construction
For apartments the rate Of con-
struction has been considerably slow.
er. For the period January / to June
1, in the 164 cities reporting on this
matter, apartment construction has
totaled an average rate of one new
family unit for every 3,427 persons,
or one unit for each 857 families.
In Inverse Proportion.
Measure of the dearth of apart
ment building Is the fact ti1at of the
1854 cities reporting on this matter
more than half state they have had
no new construction whatever in this
class. The number so reporting is,
as would be expected, in inverse pro-
portion to the size of the cities.
Counting only cities where there has
been some apartment building, the
national rate Of construction has been