Henderson Daily Dispatch

Home Building
Volume In
State At Ten-Year Peak

RALEIGH, Sept. 9.—North Carolina's building last year reached highest volume and value on ten years. C. J. Ryan, president of Investors Syndicate here today.

Cities used in this housing

Asheville,
Charlotte,
Greensboro.
Wilmington
Salem Their construction
which more than doubled
has expanded for seven

Volume Ranks Seventeenth.

Cities," explained Mr.

Betting on the con-

National housing survey,

New home in 1939 for
a rise of 4,512, or 55.2
1938 when new homes

For 8,176 persons. Last

Housing was provided for

People (31.9 percent)

Less than in 1930, Homes

These cities from 1931

Inclusive, furnished shelter

People; meanwhile popu-

Most same cities, accord-

Summary figures of the

Census for 1940, totalled

Just 30,835, or nine per-

Cent total population fig-

For 346,018.

Es, in point of 1939 new

Ranked seventeenth in

States and the District of

Their volume position for

Total was twentieth.

Of regions covered by

It contained 310 cities,

Building in these six cities

Represented 31.4 percent of

Residential building for the

Period Volume peak of

In 1939, while the low

1933, when only 915 people

Shed with new homes."

Up 30 Percent Over Year

New homes built in these

Cities in 1939

totalled $8,245,880, a rise of $2,786,417, or 50.9 percent over the 1938 level of $5,465,473. New home expenditures in 1939, the Investors Syndicate survey also shows, were $5,503,039, or 200 percent, higher than the 1930 total of $2,742,791.

From 1931 to 1939, inclusive, such valuations aggregated $29,310,204.

These 1939 new home valuations," said Mr. Ryan, "held twenty-second place in the forty-two regions studied. Last year's valuations constituted 28.1 percent of the new home values created in the 1931-1939 period. Peak of new home valuations of $8,245,880 came in 1939, while the low, $625,805, was hit in 1932.

Cost Per Person Down Fractionally.

Average per-person new housing cost in these six North Carolina cities in 1939 was $649.89, a drop of $18.58, or 2.8 percent, from the 1938 level of $668.47. Such cost last year was $255.91, or 28.3 percent, lower than the 1930 average of $905.80.

Cost of new housing for the 1931-1939 period averaged $724.06.

This is strictly a mathematical study based on government statistics or estimates. Some new building reported herein undoubtedly replaces structures destroyed by fire, flood, or wind, or wrecked because of obsolescence. Another factor necessary in accurately measuring total housing inadequacy would be the shortage or surplus existing at the beginning of the survey period.

Neither of these factors is given consideration in this strictly mathematical study."

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