Evening star., 1945-09-15
Many Home Seekers
Oppose 0PA Ceilings,
Survey Indicates
By ROBERT J. LEWIS.

Public opinion is being sampled
at a rapid rate and over a broae
field these days. Latest results te
be announced from separate source.
in the housing field throw interest.
ing light on home building issues.
George w. Warnecke & Co., New
York building financiers, founc
that prospective home buyers ir
the $4,000 to $4,000 salary class
don't look with favor on OPA CELL
lngs on new homes.
The magazine Architectural Fo-
rum discovered that a boom hous.
ing market is possible but not
probable"
Warnecke opinion samplers found
8S per cent of prospective buyers
opposed to ceilings, IA per cent sup
porting the idea, and per cent
with no opinion. All figured on
acquiring new homes within 1s
months.
OF the IA per cent favoring i'm
position of ceilings, "a per cent in
the Eastern States wanted>a $I3,-
0o0 top. At the lower extreme,
only 8 per cent said they wanted a
$4,000 lid clamped down.
Results Vary in South.
But in the South, the results
varied sharply, Of the group there,
among the IA per cent favorinp
ceilings, top ceiling of $500 was
favored by 81 per cent, while none
wanted a ceiling as low as $4,000,
according to the survey.
The Architectural Forum poll re-
vealed that while 100000 families
are interested" in buying or build
ing home sometime" only is per
cent of all families can be called
sure prospects" within the next
year, and there is strong likelihood
many of those families will buy old
homes or none at all.
Only 2,778,000 families are con-
sidered good prospects" for home
sales within the next several years,
the poll indicated.
Significant end-result of the sur
vey, as summarized by Editor How
ard Myers. is that the findings
suggest that the public itself is
likely to offer the best possible check
against runaway market"
Thus, the magazines pollsters
point out, an early abandonment of
construction controls and a swift
return to free competition seems to
be the best way to get the home
building industry back into busi-
ness"
Meanwhile, many organizations
are continuing to make clear they
feel the same way about price and
other controls.
Predicts Delay in Building.
The Structural Clay Products In
stitute, for instance, warns that
more than half of all private build
Ing scheduled to start in the i'm
mediate future, excluding public
utility projects, will be indefinitely
delayed" if the OPA fails to grant
moderate price increases on facing
brick and certain kinds of structural
tile"
Price increases of 10 per cent are
required to permit manufacturers of
brick and tile to meet current de
mands for higher wages, and a sufh-
cient number of workers cannot be
obtained under present conditions
until those demands are met"
Ernest j. Fender, institute president,
said.
Smarting under Government re-
tention of home building controls,
the National Association of Real
Estate Boards this week cited Presi-
dent 'Truman's recent message to
Congress as wiping out all reasons
for continuing existing controls.
"The President has made it plain
that every possible assistance should
be given to private enterprise to go
ahead with the job of building
houses to meet the housing Short
age" said Herbert U. Nelson, ex-
ecutive vice president of the as
sociation.
Urge Community Meetings
From the Producers Council, Inc,
national organization of manu-
facturers of building materials and
aaI>