Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/112

90 real estate on which the houses stand at 20 per cent of the value of the houses themselves.

Making the above assumptions, the total value of the houses and apartments of the country, other than on farms, in 1916 was about 48 billion dollars, and of the land on which they stood, about 9.6 billion dollars; a grand total of 57.6 billion dollars. Applying the figures of new construction in recent pre-war years, the residential buildings were about 70 per cent of the total of all buildings. The grand total for all urban buildings and real estate would therefore come to about 82.3 billion dollars, of which about 68.5 billion dollars was for buildings and 13.8 billion dollars for land. This was the position in 1916. It remains now to examine the position in 1920.

Up to 1916, and including that year, the annual building construction of the United States was about one billion square feet, costing about $1.60 per square foot on the average. In 1916, however, the average cost was about $1.80 per square foot. During the four years, 1917-1920, the building amounted to only a little more than two billion square feet. At $1.80 per square foot, the 1916 price, the addition to buildings would come to about 3.6 billion dollars, indicating a total of about 72.1 billion dollars for the country, if there were no deductions to be made. Unfortunately there are some very important deductions to be made. In the first place there is the annual fire loss, which by the National Board of Fire Underwriters has been reported as follows:

VOW. cece cece cee eens eens eens $ 231,628,040 ce 283,103,101 W919. eee eee eee e eae eee ees 256,432,319 1920 (estimated)................ 000 cee eee 420,000,000

0) 7.) $1,200,163,460