Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 June 1952 — Page 39
E. Tabor,
| p.m. Mrs, Blvd. Pl,
will call
he ‘meter ive a bill Come in
Section Four
Real Estate
3,
The Indianapolis Times
Today «Business
Ups
and Downs
Still With Us
By Harold Hartley
IT'S A TUG OF WAR now, with heels dug i in, inflation
on one side, recession on the
other.
The magic elixir of government spending is beginning,
to be felt. Cars are selling. Appliances are shaking out of |
But there's an- “ other setback ahead.
their doldrums. It's rising prices. If prices continue upward, as they must, following the pace-setting push- up| of steel wages, buyers will resist. And it's the buyer who holds] the destiny of the dollar in the! palm of his hand.
THE DROPPING "ot consumer credit controls is beginning to!
‘“We'se putting every cent we [can into better service,” said Mr. Dale, “simply getting people from where they are to where they {want to go is our mam job.” LJ | BUS RADIO i" FM. there are plenty of these stations] {available, The equipment is re-| latively inexpensive. But it does {not work everywhere. FM's beams
And!
-pensers,
pull, And right at the time when| travel in: a straight line. So
some appliances (an $8.5 billion] hilly towns such as Cincinnati}
a year business) were cutting! had trouble with busses ‘dipping prices, giving long, and often un- out” of the beam, in the valleys. reasonable trade-ins. | But it is a better than even bet The. State Unemployment Di- that someone will be after the vision showed an 8000 lop-offi traction company for the radio from jts compensation rolls in concession berors long. April. As inventories thinned out,| . fHE IDEA “sells” well. factories more Soar” men back ple are on their way to
the shopping centers. And the chance
THE ATTOMORIL E business to sell them while they are had awakened to a surprising fig- bottled up ins bus, and have to) ure which has grown and grown listen, will be too much of a
{temptation to be resisted long. since the war. It is the accessory, bill which goes: with the new Anyone interested will have to
car. {be prepared to lay out the cash
One dealer added them up last | to equip the busses with several week. Hs found such things as {receivers each, and buy the transautomatie shift and overdrive, mitter. white sidewall tires, a new posi | It is my guess ‘that it" will take tive action windshield wiper, and no less than $50,000 for a good|. a ‘push-button windshield! firm nibble,
washer, seat tovers running fiom Who's Hooked?
$18 to $60, sun-visors, leather trim for #eats ($33), heater| IT OFTEN HAPPENS - like . about $75), ‘electric clock, un-i this. Two ‘cars tangle fenders. | de sur signale,. Apter The Spore” TURRAY 28 BTR Patt YoU As ANG. eighl. tune’ ‘va the mame idea. a dios (latter about $100) “wrap-| * One or the other says, “You I
around bumbers,
tinted wind-| pay for my damage and I'll pay shield glass,
and Kleenex dis-| for yours." y That's the quick way {o-save!
> a 8 » Toa IT MADE an impressive list, : : cept the insurance company.
Peo-|
. phones ft wa
But it answered .an important question. That was, “Why do] cars factory-listed at $1700, deliver at $2400 to $2500?” It meant simply that new car dealers are deep in the accessory business, and that this alone can add as much as $700 to $800 to even a ‘“‘small car.”
Price Tip-Over?
» » o HOUSING FELT a change. Owners seem to sense the market had reached its peak. More offered homes for sale, but few stuck to stiff prices, One builder told me that three owners had cut sales prices 10 per cent in closing. And he added, “There's a difference in what people want for their houses and what they really get"
NEARLY "EVERYONE in the shelter trade feels Regulation X will come off. But that isn’t the biggest worry. Where to get the mortgage loans, and the down payments are bigger headaches. Lenders were still:-playing close to the belt. And the home business runs on financing. No lending, no business.
»
{That's why rates stay up. There will be thousands of) fenders crimped this week end. And they will- try to pass the whole bill to the insurance companies involved. :
» ” * HERE'S THE RIGHT way to do it. Report the accident to the police, state or city. Then tell your insurance company. Give names of the principals and witnesses. The rest is up to the claim adjusters. They know how to settle. And they will try to put the blame where it belongs, and go to court if it is questioned. When drivers efeh try to hook the other's insurance company, they're really spreading the bill in higher rates to all insurance buyers. : That includes you.
Chicken
THE FARM CO-OF has gone out of the broiler business. It was the same reason other businesses shut down. It couldn't make any money. In fact the figures were a little: on the pink| side. ® It has two plants, one at New
And that seems to have eased prices a little. But there’s' no guarantee they'll stay there.
Hyacinth | EVERY ONCE in awhile I get a/ surprise, It's a new telephone ox change. A day or two ago I asked in-| formation for a number. She, gave me a CYpress prefix. I'd] never heard of “CY.” Now comes “HY” for HYacinth, | which will open up nearly 1000 new telephones to free the log jam of applications for the East] Side.
A. B. NAIL, ‘Indiana Bell di-| vision manager, said the company | has been ‘pre-installing” phones) for the last few weeks, getting} them ready to be cut into service this week. When the cut-over takes place, | Irvington wi ‘have all of the| , and Indiana Bell| will have 225 people you can! call in Indianapolis, 110,000 more|
than ten years ago.
Bus Radio Soon?
HOW SOON will you have music, news, weather—and. ads; —on your bus ride to work? | The U. 8. Supreme’ Court ruled] that it is no violation of your) privacy. But that still leaves us| a long way from radig-as- -you-| ride in Ingianapolis. » » L DALE, president of Indianapolis Rallways, knows| all about bus radio. He has| given it some study on trips| around the country. One thing is sure, the Indian-|
has no intention of investing in|
trapsmitter and recelving eqyip-| : itheir pay.
ment.
| Paris in Elkhart County, and one
A
SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 1952
|
| {
i |
"homes or 200 lots today at the Northridge Addition now being
|developed by the F. M. Knight §
| Realty Co. Located at 10242 Broadway, the model home open for display is a three-hedroom brick veneer house with forced air oll heat, automatioc hot water, cabineted kitchen, a tile bath, Rruce hardwood floors and garage. The master bedroom offers walk-in type closets with sliding {doors to fully make every foot {of space under roof as usable as | possible. Interior decorations | painted or papered walls; | pendeing on the buyer's prefer-| {ence. All windows are aluminum {combination types.” The addition. already partly de- | oped, will have Diacktopped, CeblBta wii 130 NESE AD nore | lof ‘similar. size and ; in ry thef. | deyelopers, -
100-Acre Tract ed on a 100-acre tract
include
Situ
everyhody mioney-—everybody ex- {bounded by .101st, 104th St. Col-| [lege Ave. ‘and Pennsylvania st.
{the addition is only 30 minutes from the Circle and has frequent bus service on College Ave. A shopping district is located in nearby Nora. Bus service is offered to and from Clay Township schools.
The homés are being built by]
Wilkerson & Wilson, contract builders. “We feel the subdivision offers the best buy in housing on the North 8ide,” said Mr. “The tax rate here is only $3.04; and the location is tops,*
he said.
State 18th In Urban Building
Indiana climbed to 18th spot {in national urban building during {the first quarter of the year with 2547 new dwelling units started,
in Jennings County. Each can]
{turn out 1500 broilers an hour. |
| |
ITS BIG. “But it found there] were bigger boys in the game. And they got the business. The| chain supermarkets could sell broilers retail lower than the! {co-op could wholesale them. And, said the co-op, there's no| sense in that, So it locked up| {the two plants, They may reopen| {later, but who knows? The Farm Co-op doesn't, admits it.
The Unseen ‘Hand
A reader who has been going steady wrote me a “Hey-wait-a-minute” note. He said, “I'would like to say I| {do not agree with you that wages! make our high prices. “If wages jre. so high, why do we have such a surplus of everything?
“I know many wage earners who would like to buy many of the so-called necessities, but they can't afford it.” ~ ~ ” AS A QUESTION, it's a hum-| dinger, I could not ask myself Al {better one,
and|
” » ” Here is the answer: Wages are high to the manufacturer, but not high for the wageearner. There is a middle man, an unseen hand labeled “Taxes” which snatches a big chunk of the paycheck before it gets to the employee. That's why people can't afford]
themselves in the factoriés, { Those “Taxes Rangers" grab
| ever,
the U. 8. Department of Labor announced this week. A year ago the Hoosier state {ranked 20th in the nation with| {2157 units. Gary took over the top spot within the state with 673 starts for the quarter, compared to 162 |for the same period a year ago. Starts were up also in Indianapolis where 353 were recorded, {compared to 1951's first quarter {total of 248, Home building skidded, howin Evansville, Ft. Wayne and South Bend during this quarter with starts trailing the 1951 pace as much as 35 per cent.
Gary Defense Housing
The housing boom in Gary this {spring resulted directly from {starts of 500 defense housing {apartment units, which were the
tonly mulfiple family units started
in the state during the quarter. Indianapolis leads -in single family starts with 347, Nationally, h o m e building during March was about 6.4 per {cent over a year ago. However, single family home starts were off [9 per cent and two family starts were up 28.6 per cent over a year ARO,
Publicly financed housing during March zoomed up 78.3 per cent over a year ago. 2
Advice to Home Buyers -
The United States Savings and Loan League advises prospective
{home buyers to include a pro{vision for upkeep and m apolis Railways, at the moment to buy even the things they makeition In planning their
erniza1ousing |budgets. They point out that as a house grows older the cost of
maintenance naturally goes. np.
Rex
You can take your pick of new |
fully -
de- |
Knight. |
“Our homes are built from a dozen different floor plans and all are different—inside and out,”
SUBURBAN. NORTH _planned for Northridge.
The Property Manager : Needed. Specialist...
¥
hs
4 By B. W. DUCK JR. . ce President. The Spann’ Co. Ine Sak All real estate is owned for use or for income, If
property is owned for income; it's supposed to’ pay money. A property managér is-a real estate specialist trained to!
greatest possible net return, Why would anyone tie their prospective occupants? What sort money up in real estate? {of follow-up will produce resuiial The answer is «. "8
hat a very i CREDIT AND, IA, preserwe his “That's easy, if payment isn't principal. Real made, set the tenant out!” A gen-| catate is 'a rela eration ago it may have been that| | tively non-liquid simple, but today’s manager won't! sort of invest- agrees with that explanation. ment and there- Credit work begins with the defore it has an termination of a realistic policy, inherent advan- continues with the presentation of tage in capital the policy to the owner and with eservation his approval of it. Its most impr : portant phase includes the appli-
Won ke Any cation of that policy to the exist-
it isn’t always good or always bad. Neither does it stay put. If all you had to do to be wealthy was to buy a common stock, or a bond, or a piece of real estate, and then forget it, there would be
Mr. Duck
te all new tenants, Collection work begins before renting is begun with the preparation of ‘the proper application| forms.” It includes screening all |prospective tenants, not only as a lot of Wealthy people. lto their financial status but also] Secret of Success as to past record and housekeepThe secret of success in any of ph reputation to insure standards these fields is buying and selling of manitenance that will be acat the right time. The fellow Who|ceptable in a specific property , devotes hig full time to studying EER these forms of investments is the] quEp PLANNING DEPART|expert. He's the pne best quali- MENT {3 perhaps the most im-| fied to give advice. [portant and least known of all | Why would anyone tie his geryices, Here ‘analysis and inmoney up in real estate? Because vestigation lead to the establishthe next most important thing t0/jng of a sound rental schedule. At preservation of capital is secur thig point thorough familiarity ing a fair return—be it interest,iyith OPS and other governmental dividend or rent, Under expert pureaus is essential, management real property lias an| Planning includes a constant outstanding record yea: in and watch for trends which may year out of paying a rs curn which jeopardize the security of the is fair and which is in proportion owner's investment in the propto the risk. lerty, or which may necessitate a This is important to corporate|conversion to a new use. owners: of real estate, , . to) It also big companies which are, aftermaintenance schedules for all of all, owned by little individuallthe many and different parts of stockholders, but it's even more|s building and the equipment important to the hundreds of which makes it serviceable, thousands of Aunt Marys, the ’. 0 ou widow down the block, or the re-| MAINTENANCE does the tired couple you met at the trail-\; cei eeping job. A manager er camp last fall. aspires to preventive mainte-| Assurance of Earnings |nance which catches and cor-| Americans have ~always bg¢- lrects bad conditions before they lieved in their country and have {become a source of annoyance to jealously guarded their right to occupant and owner alike. own a piece of their land. Expert| He must supervise work In| management is their best assur-many trades and therefore must| ance the earnings of their realbave a good working knowledge
property will maintain relative of all. Also in this department position, {the manager purchases supplies]
Why would anyone tie his/0f many kinds. He must there] money up in real estate? Because fore keep in constant touch with] every investor is entitled to the) market prices 4g he assured he is| return of his capital at some time getting the ounts the owner in the future. |is entitled to receive due to Hie} In real estate Investment an-|volume of his purchases, and h nual depreciation enables an/must also check the quality on owner to recover a fair propor-servicability of those items which|s tion of the capita) ‘invested in/he buys to be certain they are| improvements each year. In spite durable and satisfactory. of the fact “this principle is ® & » recognized in our laws owners) ACCOUNTING SERVICE--not| of investment property fall to just to report dollars received, utilize it properly. The property| and spent to eliminate most of | manager is thoroughly familiariine tax reporting problems, These | with the practical application of records must be kept to show at!
this principle and uses it to the! - advantage of his cients.” ia glance any unusual cost in-|
How does he accomplish these
of operating costs between prop-
{miracies? erties. Also, from this source, Five Major Services the manager, By the application In the Hirst place, today'siof cost accounting methods, pro-
property manager is rendering aiduce figures vital to intelligent professional service, He must purchasing and operation, { qualify himself hy years of train- No False Economy ing and experience to deserve the, Yes, all real estate is owned confidence of those whom heifor use or income. Much of it sefVes. And he must have that confidence if he is to perform his function effectively.
not—often because an -owner is so smart that he puts $50,000
Ip
record housing ‘this spring by the Bureau of JLa- under the $10,000 price level. ihor statistics; jaggerated.”
PAGE 39
Real Estate I TS Business Chae ee ee o *{ * Small Home Plan «ss vavevas SIE Classified weiensarenes 4151
Uncertain of long range
Builders Question Fat U.S. Figures
New Northridge Addition Home Open Today Who Is Doing All That
Home Building?’ They Ask
federal controls over credit
and the trends of a nervous mortgage market, the nation's om builders are playing the game close to their vests,
That's the observation of John Bauer, president of
he Marion County Residencial
leautious, said Mr. Bauer,
Associa- builder said.
Builders, just returned from a present down payments range be{Washington confab with the di- tween 20 and 50 per cent, the rectors of the National ition of Home Builders, Contrary to federal agency re- ing under $10,000 probably will orts on this spring's building vol- not he changed and if they were {ume, home builders are heing very dropped, mortgage lenders probably would not accept the lower
Down payments on homes cost=
The builders pooh-poohed near minimum,” Mr. Bauer said.
starts
termed them “ex-
reported |,
Mr. Rauer builds homes selling
A. H. M. Graves, also a nae
tional delegate from Indianap-
“Not one of the 300 builders at lis and a builder of houses in
building more
the meeting raised his hand to the $12,000 to $30,000 price range, signify he was
!predicted the eredit relaxation"
houses this year than a year ago would be a big help to builders off |-—as the BLS figures claim,” Mr. medium priced and luxury homes,
i i
Funds tor a loans: to buy homes and for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Ad-
{soon he relaxed
Bauer said.
About 25 per cent said they Had |
{about the same volume and 75 per these days,” he said. cent reported a smaller volume of (starts, he added.
See Relaxed Credit Controls Mr. Bauer was confident, how- |
jever, that Regulation X would not ended. |
“There appears very liftla hope |
it will be complétely removed. | {Government economists {have it: handy, just in case Bauer said. | |. IP 1s likely the relaxation will] |ecome in home price brackets be-| | tween $12,000 and $25,000—where |
SIDE—Fitean more_homes in the $15,950-$16,500 price bracket are |
FHA Loans
"want 10}
|
Mr. |
I—as
“People just can't seem i handle that big down paymen “They can afford the nomes and make the monthly payments, but they lack cash.” ft Commenting on the builders’ caution, Mr. Graves said: » “The Republicans are getting just as bad as the Democrats— all they can think about now
Mr. Graves’
is getting re-elected. The builder doesn’t know what to expect and can't make any long range plans
he should.”
+. * Credit No. 1 Problem-
The number one problem of the
¢ builders, both Mr, Bauer and Mr.
raves agreed, {s credit. And inng are that thers. will bs a _§radual ‘easing of: ‘mortgage
‘money.
But a larger sHare of the 1952
&¢ home building will have to be L$ financed at. conventional rates. k Last. year FHA and VA home
ministration under {ts Title II {program are moderately to freely
‘supervise real estate investments so they will produce the, y
ing occupants and its explanation,
includes establishing|.
Builders Meet
crease and to enable compartson| ;
available throughout the United States, James W. js: Hurt, president ¢ of the Indianap-
Board,
erans tration, are generally not avalilable, he added.
‘Mr. Hurt
results of a sur vey by the Mortgage Study Com-
|mittes of the National Associa-|
[tion of Real Estate Boards. The! 379 replies covered 47 states and the District of Columbia. _ “Moderately available to tight” | was the finding for Title IX loans insured by FHA, Mr. Hurt [said. Title IX provides a liberal 'type of mortgage insurance by the FHA for critical defense housing programmed by the fed{eral government. “The survey disclosed 5 per cent is the medial interest rate on conventional loans throughout the country,” Mr. Hurt said. unrealistio interest rate of 4 cent maintained by the Veterans! | Administration, even though it has the authority to allow it tol
rise to meet the competition of have subsided, at least for awhile,
the market, was the reason listed| most often for the nonavail-| ability of GI loans, Top Sources Listed “Other findings of the survey | showed savings and loan assoecia-| tions were rated as the prineipal| source of mortgage funds, with, Insurance companies second and commercial banks third.” Specifically, 84 per cent of the! returns reported GI loans wers| tight or not available, while 16! per cent listed them as moderately! or freely attainable. | For FHA-Title IT mortgage| funds, 71 per cent of the com-| munities said they were moderate-| ly or freely available for single family dwellings, and 53 per centW reported the same situation for) apartment structuszes. Most fluldity exists in the cate(gory of conventional loans, Mr, {Hurt said, with 85 per cent of the! | communities stating these are moderately or freely available {for single family units, and 76 per cent disclosing the same status for apartment buildings. The picture for FHA-Title IX mortgage funds showed 49 per cent of the returns listing them as-moderately or freely available for single family houses, but only 38 per cent reporting the same for muifiple family structures.
|
|
The next regular meeting of the Indianapolis Home Builders
olis Real Estate § reported §
teed by the Vet-™ Adminis-|
Mr, Hurt based his statement on|.
loans ran about 34 per cent of
the dollar value of all new mort-
gages, Generally, Mr. Bauer said, mortgages money iz looser here than in most parts of the nation.
"Most local builders are able to {obtain all needed FHA financing, {ut VA loans are practically exitinet.”
1
|
Real Estate—
TV More Vital Than Tepee?
By DON TEVERBAUGH
Times Real Estate Editor . IT IS MORE IMPORTANT for you to buy a new TV set, or a.new auto, than it is to buy a new home for your
family.
That is the inescapable answer to recent action by the
“The | Federal Reserve Board in lifting per credit controls from everything
|except houses. “Lately,
(and the board has jte relax its anti-inflation con[trols.”” These are the exact words {of the board as it lifted Regulation W. But the real truth is this: It is mors important for the administration to fit uz all with rose colored glasses—and TV sets and {shiny new cars are very much a part of this—thau it is to see the nation adequately housed.
They’ ve got. another “deal” up|
{their sleeves, come November. The “Good Deal.” And there won't be any credit restrictions on it when they start selling it to
you. They're doctoring- ‘the*books
right now.
But perhaps the Washington economists should have studied
the 1950 census report a little|
more. It shows a very evident shortage of housing.
But none of TV sets and new automobiles, ™ With our population zooming upward at more than 2 million per year and with a tremendous 25 per cent jump in new families expected in the early 1960's, this nation is going to need all the housing it can produce. Wain top home production can be attained only by giving free rein to the building Industry and!th its financing.
Association will be Tuesday at |6 p.m, at Fox's Steak .louse, the |group announced loday.
It beging-to look like the gov-
ernment is fostering the housing
shortage,
which could pay good returns is Se
He isn’t a “rent collector,” but a trained councellor who knows ‘much about many diverse trades
into a building: and then tries to save money by hiring a janitor for $50 a month to look after his
re {Bown is the will make the best occu- yourself in nis .in the long run? {tine property be p ETE
and crafts. Whether he operates $50,000 investment. alone or directs the operation of{— Generally, the services of a a large organization his work|qualified management agent will fans into five major departments. save more dollars per year than #onw they cost, to say nothing of the RENTING OR LEASING is the first of these. How can interest in a property be stimulated? To what of ive renters ite appedl? Which of this
petty day-to-day problems they give the owner, If you are the owner of Income property, you owe. it to io find Ari Soult Shia this
ng the st 20 Tear
~
rab gi
security and freedom from the
Who Wants Rentals?
It's pretty hard to believe, but
inflationary dangers in the heart of perhaps the na-
{tion's biggest housing boom area ~— Levittown, Pa, — two bedroom
taken this step houses built to rent at ‘$65 per
month are standing enipty. Everyone is buying. The $9990 home. i= breaking records even for Levitt. Here's why: ‘To rent’ these homes you have to plunk down $195 in advance, To buy, it takes as little as $800 down (for GIs) and up to $1500 for non-vets with monthly payments of $59 or $60. 80 far, 1300 families have {bought homes and only one has {signed up for a rental unit, The Levittown $9990 model in. cludes a fireplace; a kitchen equipped with refrigerator, range, automatic washer; floor slab ‘radiant heat, thermopane win-. dows, attached carport and ® 70 by 100 foot lot.
Advice on Ads * :
Those little lines set in agate type in the classified sections of newspapers are getting to be bigger factors in today's house sales, Most real estate brokers frankly admit oply a very few buyers walk into their offices. And that’s a big change from a
few years when houses were That puts it up to advertising. And if you'd like to know wha
.
eis article by my Roger Lakey in the current issue of the National Real Estate and Building Journal. They checked their readers. on
One of the hig questions
‘asked was, “Should price i}
cation be included in the ad?" About 62 per cent agreed they
* |should.
Home buyers, ary price conscious now, tend to be