Evening star., 1943-09-25
Rent Control by 0PA
In 2S7 Cities Hit by
Realty Board Survey

The National Association of Real
Estate Boards, In the third section
of its 41st semiannual survey of
realty conditions, today sharply crit
icized the ONCE of Price Admins
tration for its handling of rent con-
troll and charged the OPA has "cut
down the Nations supply of housing
for war workers by causing the with
drawal of dwellings from the rental
market in substantial numbers"
The associations survey of 287
cities is based on opinions supplied
by local realty boards and covers
home buying. property management.
mortgage conditions and the general
real estate field.
This phase of the associations
survey claimed the following five
points:
81. The oPA third down pay
nent rule decreased the volume of
home buying in 50 per cent of the
surveyed cities, despite the increase
in purchasing power of families and
their desire to own their own home.
1t blocked as much as so per cent of
the sales In fourth of the surveyed
cities.
For Sale Houses Withdrawn.
"2. The requirement that no ten
anted house could be sold for less
than one-third down and a wait of
30 days unless comparable accom-
modations we're available caused for
sale properties to be withdrawn
from the rental market in two thirds
of the cities. In some places, the
survey showed, from rs per cent to
100 per cent of for sale dwellings are
withheld from rental. Owners of
houses, fearing the complications of
OPA Rent-C Control Administration,
and fearing loss of their control of
their own property, have refused to
rent houses that otherwise would
have been available for renting.
The association, In reporting this
condition among property owners,
pointed out that OPA Administra-
tion has been self-defeating to the
extent that 1t has caused a shrink
age Of rentable living space at time
when greater amounts of such space
have been urgently needed.
"3. Rents have been set below
fair level in 80 per cent of the re-
porting communities, the survey
showed. Local real estate boards
were asked to indicate whether OPA
rent levels were fair, high or low.
The result showed that in four-f1fths
Of the communities the rent level
had been held at a point below fair
return. 1t was frequently reported
that there, was inequality in the
rents set for comparable dwellings,.
Il. The present inf1exible system,
with no possibility OF adjustment of
individual rents on Judgment of
local administrators where repairs
and improvements on any ordinary
scale are made, is squeezing owners
between restricted income from their
properties and rapidly-rising labor
and material costs for building up-
keep. Rent control. the reports
show, is definitely and very gener-
ally discouraging or preventing nor
NAL repairs.
"In conjunction with unavoidable
wartime difficulty in getting building
materials for repairs, the present
type of rent control is thus danger
ously accelereting the depreciation
of residential structures. Excessive
depreciation is being experienced in
IS per cent of the reporting cities.
1t has gone so far as to affect struc-
tural soundness in 5 per cent of
them, the reports said.
Local Control Urged.
IS. Little fundamental objection
TO a sound rent control system was
registered by the reporting cities.
Sixty-two per cent of the local real
estate boards reported that they felt
some method of rent control was
necessary in order to stabilize war
time rents. However, registering OBJ
lection to the way the OPA system
has been administered, majority
of the boards declared that the best
form of rent control would be local
system under local control.
"As far as the efforts of local OPA
rent offices are concerned So per
cent of the real estate boards re-
ported that OPA rent Offices had
tried to handle rent control with
reasonable fairness and good judg-
ment. Chief criticism expressed in
comments generated by the survey
was directed against the highly CEN
tralized Washington directive sys-
tenn of OPA."
Commenting on the results of its
survey, the association stated:
THE results engendered by OPA's
administration Of rent control re-
ported here are not an expression
of opinion by this association. They
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