Homes at $3r(D0 Greatest Housing Need

Chicago, Feb. 8-The building industry,s most important product during the next 1O years will be a simple, substantial house selling for $3,000 or less, Bror G. Dahlberg of The Celotex Company told members of the Illinois Lumber and Material Dealers Association here today.

Such a house, he declared, will create the biggest market the industry has ever had and dwarf building,s l92S pay- roll of 3 billion dollars, the largest ever paid by any industry.

"There is a 30 billion dollar market for such houses among the middle third of our population-the l0 million families with annual incomes between $1,200 and $2,000. All these people want is a good house at $3,000, plus a 15year payment plan. Because new houses have always cost more than they could afford, they have had to live in old, cast-off dwellings, just as they had to buy second-hand, ramshackle automobiles before Ford ofiered them good, new cars at $500. Like all of us, they would rather have something new. The building industry is about to give it to them."

He estimated the total U. S. housing need at 45 billions. In addition to the 3O billions in the 91,200 to $2,000 income class, there is a 3 billion dollar housing shortage among families with income above $2,000, the result of lack of new construction during the depression.

Another 12 billions, he declared, are needed to provide homes for those families with incomes under $1,200. Extensive government aid, modeled on European slum clearance systems, is required if such dwellings are to be provided at $1,200 a unit, a minimum that has never been achieved. he asserted.

WESTERN RETAILERS' ANNUAL

The 31st annual convention of the Western Retail Lumbermen's Association will be held at the Davenport Hotel, Spokane, Wash., on February 22, 23 and 24, 1934.

Tim Preston Visits California

H. W. "Tim" Preston, sales manager, Silver Falls Timber Co., Silverton, Ore., recently paid a visit to his mother in Southern California.