Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/111

Rh recent years. Thomas S. Holden, statistician of the F. W. Dodge Co., has informed me that census figures show that over a period of 25 years the average annual residential construction was 310,000 “dwellings.” The American Telephone and Telegraph Co., which has made careful studies of the subject in order to forecast and provide for its plant extensions, estimates a normal building of about 400,000 new houses annually.

Statistics of the F. W. Dodge Co. indicate an average of about 2,200 sq. ft. of floor space per building. Previous to the war the normal annual construction was about 700,000,000 sq. ft. of floor space for residential purposes and about 300,000,000 sq. ft. for industrial, mercantile and all other classes of buildings, exclusive of public works. The average cost of building construction was about $1.60 per square foot, indicating a total annual investment of about 1.6 billion dollars in new buildings. These statistics, which may be considered as being exclusive of construction on farms, are probably understatements rather than overstatements, and bearing this in mind the total figure is not out of harmony with the pre-war estimate of Sir George Paish that the United States put annually about two billion dollars into new buildings.

The 20,000,000 houses and apartments available for use by people other than farmers in 1916 may be estimated as having cost an average of $3,500. They were, of course, of widely variable ages and degrees of upkeep, and their physical value was less than their cost. How much less, nobody can do better than conjecture. If I put down the average value at $2,400, I shall not be extravagant. Nor shall I be otherwise than conservative if I write the value of the