WhatChas.R. McCormick &Co. Think of the Situation

It Is Apparent That Wholesale Prices of Lumber flave Reached "Bottom."

Bttilding Gains With Opening of Spring Season. Homes Needed

An Associated Press dispatch from New York carries the following message on the ionstruction outlook as seen from that point:

Building construction is on the move upward. There is every prospect that as much building will be undertaken this month throughout the country as supplies of materials and labor will permit. The movement has been aided by the open winter, and ccinstruction for the first two months of the ylar was in the neighborhood of 20 per cent above the correspond- ing period ol 1923.

In fact, there seems little likelihood that the volume of construction work will fall off during 1924 unless building costs increase materially. ThiS latter contingency is not by any means impossible. In most instances wage agreemcnts have been arrived at for some time to come. But contractors. investors and speculators may offer bonuses if the pressure of work is severe. The volumc of building may be estimated and this pressure measured by the fact that there is a housing deficiency which it will require expenditure of at least $5.000,000,000 to fill.

The greatest lack still is in residential building. Hotel, business and office construction appears ample in many sections, and there has been a falling off in demand for apartments at the present rates of rent charged in some cities. This has chccked construction somewhat in Chicago and other midwestern centers of population.

The rnajor part of the spring building activities are pretty sure to be absorbed by the larger cities. Building since Janu- ary I shows that nearly 75 per cent of the construction in 280 communities was confined to twenty-fivc of the larger centers. The volume of building in the larger centers is out of proportion to their population and would seem to indicate that in the smaller cities the building shortage is not being so successfully relieved.

There has been, of course, a tremendous drift of population city-ward and so far there is no evidence of a return flow country-ward. Ilowever, careful real estate men are refrain{rB from counting all this influx as permanent urban populauon.

The greatest proportion of building gains so far this year has been in the South, where construction has been about 25 per cent ahead of the early part of last year. This, of course, is natural since weather conditions have favored construction in that section. In the colder sections, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Newark, Providence and Jersey City showed greatest gains.

The steel and material men exprcss cxtreme confidence in the continuation of building, at least for the next four months. The United States Steel Corporation is spending S6,000,000 in reconstruction and improvement of plants. Many bankcrs confidently predict construction this year will entail the spcnd- ing of between four and fivc billion dollars.

Some industrial plants, howcver, are lcaving the larger cities in order to find cheaper land. Localities which once were dcvoted to manufacturing and refining industrics have been sought by other intcrests willing to pay more. The latter in conscquencc are being shoved into thc country.

Phone Garfield 5000 and let us figure on your requirements now.

CHAS. R. McCORMICK & COMPANY. W. KELLY, Sales Manager.