Evening star., 1939-12-02
Average American
Found 10 SET Limit
OF $1,000 on Home
Survey DiseIoses
Amortization Within
IS Years Preferred

When you mention owning new
home to the average American, he
or she thinks in terms OF a house
costing less than $1,000, and con-
templates between 10 and Is years
to pay off the debt. And one out
of every two thinks that down
payment of Is per cent or more is
advisable.
These are some of the things that
the Committee on Trends Of the
United States Savings and Loan
League has found out in its recent
QUESTIONABLE on public attitudes,
results of which will be incorporated
In the official report to next years
national savings and loan conven-
ton. Surveys were made of the
attitudes Of people picked at ran
dom, including per cent factory
workers, 7 per cent proprietors of
businesses, 20 per cent housewives,
16 per cent professional workers and
II per cent statesmen, and mis-
cellaneously employed others.
The Eastern seaboard. a Middle
Western metropolis and the Rocky
Mountain and Pacific Coast area
were scene of the QUESTIONABLE.
Amortized System Preferred.
Results of the past six years
emphasis by Government agencies
on the monthly repayment home
mortgage, which is a century old
heritage from the savings and loan
institutions, show prominently in
the survey. Nine out of every 10
persons would prefer an amortized
mortgage in financing their homes.
The league committee points out
that before the depression only
those who were borrowing money
from the thrift and home financing
nstitutions-about one third OF all
the mortgagors were making
steady payments to reduce their
debt on the home.
In the Western area, 32.5 per cent
of those interviewed would plan for
homes costing less than $4,000 If
they were going to buy or build,
while 468 per cent would have
places costing between $4,000 and
$4,000. The replies from the East
coast show a slightly higher per-
centage in the group which would
plan a $4,000 to $1,000 home. but
still 224 per cent would want a
less-than-$4OO0 home and another
39.5 per cent think in terms Of a
$4,000 to $4,000 house.
Economic Sense Disclosed.
'It comes as a pleasant surprise
that more than half of the people sur
veyed would expect and think they
should pay Is per cent or more down
on the home at time of purchase or
building" commented Carl j. Berg
mann of Washington, member Of
the committee and director of the
league for the Southeastern district.
"Also reassuring as to the hard
economic sense of the average
American is the fact that 53.5 per
cent of the Westerners would
choose to pay off their homes in 10
years rather than making it more
costly by prolonging the period OF
repayment in order to get smaller
monthly outlays. Also 21.6 per cent
of those in the East and 34.4 per
cent in Chicago favor the l0-year
period.
Both the diminishing of the
initial payment and the stretching
out of the time of repayment have
been advocated of recent years by
all those who want to swell the
production and purchase of houses
without regard for the dislocations
to family budgets and eventua.
financial disasters to individuals
which might result from over
buying and certainly from over
borrowing. These typical Americans
nearly%half of whom live on be-
tween $1,000 and $4,000 a year
have shown that it is not so easy
to make a financially undesirable
plan seem desirable to the alert
thinking person who has to do the
paying. American home ownership
of the future will be on firmer
ground because of the acumen
shown by the typical citizen In siz-
ing up these ideas"
Mr.. Bergman said that half OF
the people interviewed were those
under 40 who will be the home
b,Ivers of the coming decade,