Evening star., 1942-11-28
FILA Chief Predicts
Unlimited Postwar
Housing Demands
Ferguson Warns Industry
To Modernize Methods
To Reop Full Benefits
Special Dispatch to The Star.

special Dispatch to The Star.
CHICAGO, ILL.,, Nov. 27.-If full
advantage is taken Of technical ad-
vances in materials, construction
and marketing practices, the Ameri-
can housing industry can look for
ward to an almost unlimited need
and demand for new housing in
postwar America, Federal Housing
Commissioner Abner H. Ferguson
this week told the conference Of the
United States Savings and Loan
League.
when the war is over" Mr.. Fer
guson asserted, I'VE will find a
country with trade prospects in un-
heard-of amounts. We will find a
country with a welled-up demand
for peacetime products of all kinds,
with thousands and. thousands of
houses needing deferred repairs and
with a backlog Of new houses va
r1ously estimated at from 100000 to
10000 year for 10 years"
Mass Market Needs.
Mr.. Ferguson warned, however
that the housing industry must
modernize its operating methods if
it is to reap the full benefit of these
opportunities.
I'VE cannot continue to build
houses piece by piece, as shoes were
made 100 or more years ago, if we
expect to get the price of houses
down to point where they will
appeal to the mass Market" he said.
In citing the wartime develop
ments which have cleared the way
for sweeping modernization of the
housing industry, MIR. Ferguson laid
particular stress upon the valuable
experience gained under the war
housing program with pre-fabri-
Gated or factory built houses and
upon the tremendously expanded
production capacity being developed
In new materials such as aluminium,
plastics, plywood, magnesium and
synthetic rubber.
Mr.. Ferguson also advocated
greater development within the
housing industry of well-capitalized
construction companies to bring the
benefits OF large-scale production to
residential building. With large
volume operations, such companies
could reduce the cost of houses
through purchase of land and ma
terials in volume, through prefabri-
cation, and through the possibility
Of furnishing constant employment
to their labor, he declared.
Sees Intensified Planning.
Mr.. Ferguson defined the three
broad areas for postwar housing
operations as the production of i'm
proved houses for sale at prices sub
stantially below those previously
prevailing. the development of i'm
proved methods for building and
financing rental housing for that
section of the population which pre-
fers to rent rather than to buy
their living quarters, and resump-
ton of slum clearance combined
with the rehabilitation Of blighted
city areas.
He also foresaw intensified plan
ming in the postwar housing mar
ket, both as to neighborhood devel-
opments and on a city-wide basis.
To provide for well-balanced city
development, factual studies should |
be available on population trends,
income ranges. transportation, the
distribution of schools and recrea-
tional facilities and the location of
business and employment centers,
he declared. Land use and occu-
pancy will need to be specified, in
cluding areas for publicly financed
m-clearance projects and those
reserved for development by private
capital.
On the neighborhood scale, Mr. |
Ferguson predicted an increasing
number of self-contained residential
communities, equipped with schools,
parks and Fairgrounds and shop
ping centers.