Housing Problem.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 April 1922, Page 1

Housing Problem.

HOW AMERICA TS SOLVING IT.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 14

Rulin' nl the American cities resemble hives of industry in developing large areas with beautiful homes springing up by the hundreds. These homes are very desirable, fitted up as they are with every imaginable built-in fixture, with Roman plunge baths, pedestal basins, breakfast tables and seats whirli arc hidden in the wall and may be withdrawn at will in a few minutes in the most modern of kitchens. The highest type of plumbing is demanded in all up-to-date American bungalows, most of the architectural ideas having been brought in from Britain. All the rooms are heated by furnaces from the basement, the warm air being conveyed through asbestos-covered pipes to the individual rooms, where it is regulated by registers in the walls. Most of these homes are finished in “old ivory” enamel. There are telephone cabinets in the wall; electric door-openers, working through transformers, and speaking tubes to the front door from upstairs. Tn some of the Western American cities such as Bos Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, there is a wonderful building boom, especially in the firstnamed city, where homeseekers are actually purchasing homes off of blueprints, so enormous is the rush for modern bungalows by the thousands ot Easterners who are rushing to the balmy regions of California. Csually, these people are well provided lor, having a snug fortune and being prepared to pay well for any luxury.

Some of the Western cities are preaching “Own a Home, and as the general house occupier ‘has been held up by the throat by a conscienceless landlord he is ready enough to use the same rent amount as a monthly payment on the purchase of a modern home of his own.

With such phenomenal building activity there is becoming a scarcity of good mechanics, especially carpcnteis who know their business from A to Z. It, is predicted that with tins rush for now homes many of the out-of-date flats and houses will be relegated to limbo very shortly. There ns much speculation in the building business and property is continually changing hands, ■with splendid margins ol profit Recorded. Everybody seems to be striving to own a home as one ol the prime laelors insolving the high cost ot living, with the prospect of living rent tree m a few years, after the last instalment has been paid on the new home. Kvervbody is anxiously looking ionward to the time when there will be a substantial lessening in the cost of livino- but as the horizon looks at the present there is no much promise of better conditions for a long time yet. THE MONEY MARKET.

The reduction of the bank rate to the figure at which it stood at Lho declaration of war has been bailed with satisfaction in trade circles. H is regarded as proof that the period ot dear money has terminated, and is expected to stimulate trade activity m which a revival already has commenced. All that is wanted now is a reduction in income tax. A few weeks ago it was confidently predicted that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir R. S. Horne) would make a substantial reduction in view of the possibility of an early general election. Now the Government’s opponents suggest that the election will not be held till late in the year, and therefore this need for a reduction in income tax does not exist. But the public is still hopeful. the butter market. Although butter prices have again fallen, there is no reason for alarm, as the position inherently is strong. The only cause of the relapse was that prices had been raised too rapidly, and a reaction was inevitable. Butter supplies from all sources seem, hardly

likely to suffice for the consumptive demand, and traders anticipate a keen inquiry after the holidays. Home production is still bade ward, despite a plentiful supply of milk, and little is likely to come from the Continent, which is still buying on the English market. Orders are coming even from France.