Los Angeles Building Statistics Their Relation To The Market

You hear a great deal, nowadays, about the relationship between the market for lumber, and the building permits, particularly in Los Angeles and vicinity.

The lumber market gets bum when the figures show that building permits are high, and it seems difficult to reconcile the two apparently diametric propositions.

In May, this year, the building permits in Los Angeles boomed up to nearly seventeen million dollars' Yet the demand for lumber was generally reported to be very bad. whv?

Perhaps the reason is in the details of the building figures. So, for the benefit of those who like to give such propositions more than casual attention, we are reproducing herewith figures furnished us by the Chamber of Commerce of the City of Los Angeles on the building situation within the limits of this city. There are a lot of interesting figures here.

The fellow who feels inclined to do a little "digging" may find out a lot of interesting truths.

For instance, in 1920 we find by dividing the total amount of dollars by the number of permits, that the average permit was for $2,348. In l92t it amounted to $2224 per permit. In 1922 it was $2,559. In 1923 it was $3,199. In 1924 it was $2,936. But for the first five months of 1925 th'e average was $3,534. They were getting bigger right along, per permit.

Why ? Maybe there are lots of reasons for it not shown on the face of these figufEs. But anyway, you will find that the Class A, Steel frame and reinforced concrete buildings, for the first five months this year totalled $19,023,700, as compared with a total of $24,196,587 for that class of buildings for the entire twelve months of. 1924. Which is why the average this year is growing so rapidly.

Maybe YOU, if you are interested, can dig up many other illuminating facts from these Los Angeles figures. Trv them. Here they are: