may be stated that a workingman's home costs nearly double to construct in 1925 as compared with 1913.
Cost of house furnishings
Incidentally, it should be pointed out that household furnishings are no small item in the cost of a home. Their price record in the eyes of the home-owner has little to commend it. They have risen in price much more than have building materials.
Finance is the heaviest cost
But important as are these well-known factors of land, municipal and site improvements, building construction and house furnishings, it is a striking fact that they do not influence housing costs to nearly the same extent as does the cost of finance. What makes a workingman's home almost prohibitive to-day is the price paid for the capital employed in building the house. More capital is required to-day than formerly, and is paid for at a higher rate. Since the capital is usually employed in a small-scale speculative venture, the investor naturally requires a high return on his money.
Whereas formerly the small home could be financed in the real estate market at an average rate of about six or seven per cent in New York City, to-day, according to the New York State Commission of Housing and Regional Planning, the capital used in tenements in New York State at present "costs on an average of from eight and one-half to ten per cent for interest without making allowance for the initial costs of securing a loan. In the case of small loans on single- family houses the percentage loaned on first mortage is rather lower, frequently as low as forty to forty-five per cent, and the average interest rate is consequently somewhat higher because of the increased proportion of junior mortgages." The "initial costs" referred to cover commissions, bonuses, discounts, legal fees and other charges on the various mortgages and building loans. In other parts of the United States even higher figures are reported. The effect of this increase is, roughly speaking, that the small home-owner needs at least double the capital to-day that he formerly required, and pays for the use of it at a rate about half as much again; that is, for every $100 capital for which formerly he paid $6 or $7 interest, he now requires $200 and pays $17 to $20 or more for it.
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