Evening Star Newspaper, April 17, 1937, Page 27

REAL ESTATE. CYCLE OF RENTS DISCLOSES GAIN Typical American Home Averages 11 Changes in 20 Years. A typical American home rented for the past 20 years has averaged about 11 different rental prices in that period and the tenant has paid high rents in more years than he has paid low rents since 1917, the Home Build+ ing and Home Owning Committee of the United States Building and Loan League showed in a bulletin issued to member associations today. Seven of the changes in rent costs, those coming as a rule in 1919, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1924 and again in 1935 and 1937, were upward, whereas only four of them, first in 1926 and then in 1931, 1932 and 1933, were drops. This the committee deduces from its study of rental indexes for the Nation and more detailed figures for some specific cities. Taking a particular house as an example and assuming that the same family rented it for the 20 years 1915-1934, the building and loan financiers figure that for the money paid out in rents, beginning with $30 a month in 1915 and follow- ing the ups and downs of the market, the same family could now own a $5,000 house and lot free of debt after paying off a building and loan mort- gage month by month. They could have included $500 in repairs and modernization during the period and peid estimated taxes and insurance on the building, all within the sum paid for rent. Cycle of Rise and Fall. From the standpoint of the family choosing between renting and owning nowadays, the experience of the past cycle of rise and fall in costs and values is of more than academic inter- est, the committee claims. At least two step-ups in rents on the average dwelling have taken place in the course of the new cycle of activity and rising cost of living and tonch-I tions are not such as to generate the | hope that they will stop there. ‘Turning to the apartment rents, as eontrasted with the one-family home rent, the committee finds even greater likelihood that more and more fre- quent rent increases will be slapped on for several years yet. Houses which are rented out are usually owned by persons or companies with small . amounts of real estate holdings, it is suggested, so that the owners do not study quite so carefully the problem of each deviation in rental demands, | as do the apartment building owners and managers to whom a few extra dollars on each apartment’s rent may mean the difference between coming | out in the red or in the black that particular year. Thus, the committee figures, a family living in the same apartment for the past 20 years will have experienced considerably more than 11 changes in the rental, and by far a majority of them will be upward. ‘The house used by the committee as an example of its cost to a rent- ing family and what it would have cost an owner-occupant family was in Chicago. Rental Paid by Family. Rentals paid by a family living in this small home from 1915 to 1934 (the end of the low-rent part of the | past cycle), starting with $30 a month and varying according to the | scale of rent rises and falls which an academician in the field of land value | research has worked out for this par- ticular city, were summed up at $9,- 193. The figure is conservative, be- cause rents are figured from 1925 on, the year when the leveling off began, on the basis of the fact that the house ‘was more than 10 years old and would |}/ drop down some in class, a circum- |} stance which would be taken ad- vantage of by the tenant. The family paid as low as $23 a month by 1933, as compared with a high of $58.75 a month in 1924, the year of the last rise. | Then the committee turns to the | proposition of a family which bought | this house in 1915 at a sale price of $5,000, with a down payment of $1,- | 750, the rest of the money borrowed | from a savings and loan institution at | total cost, interest plus extras, of 6.5 per cent, and paid back in monthly in- stallments of $33.30 would be cleared off in 11 years and 7 months, and the cost to the owner would be $4,629. Adding an outside estimate of $2,300 for taxes and insurance to the entire cost of the home, and allowing $500 for maintenance over the 20 years, the owner would pay out $9,179, as com- pared with accumulated rent receipts of $9,193. “And he has a free-of-debt house, good for probably 20 years more of life, with which to face an era of rising rents which may take the cost of living almest anywhere,” says the com- mittee. | — ART SESSION SCHEDULED Authorities on Architecture and Sculpture to Participate. Authorities on architecture, sculp- ture and painting will participate in & symposium on contemporary art at the Summer session of Columbia Uni- versity, which opens July 12 and con- tinues for six weeks. Harvey Wiley Corbett and William Leacare will lecture on modern archi- tecture. Paul Manship and William Zorach will discuss sculpture. Forbes ‘Watson will direct studies in modern Reinting. Another lecturer will be pn Charlot, who was an associate Diego Rivera in the formation of modern school of Mexican fresco Inting. A Real Bargain 707 Somerset PL. N.W. (6300 Block of Tth St. N.W.) Six Rooms Built-in Garage All in New-House Condition %,750 Near schools, churches, stores and transportation Harry Wardman, Inc. 1512 K DI 3830 THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY. ‘Dwelling in Arlington Purchased Maj. and Mrs. Stuart Reimel h Arlington, Va., from Lieut. Col. Beth Mrs. Jack Hayes. BY DOROTHY DUCAS AND ELIZA- BETH GORDON. OW safe is your house when you lock it up for the night? Not, we wager, as safe as you think it is. For no mat- ter how many locks you have on your doors, unless they are especially de- signed against burglars, they can be picked, probably with ease. Very few locks offer any real re- sistance to the operation of a set of skeleton keys or the manipulation of a cheap set of simple lock-picking tools. The nicest houses sometimes | ‘have the poorest locks, for people Jjust are not “lock-conscious” until it is too late. Why not treat your doors to locks | which are insured against picking by a famous British insurance com- pany? There is a lock company which will come and replace or re- build all the locks in your house and then give you an insurance policy for $100 to cover losses in the event the locks are picked. You won't need to buy all new locks either, since this company puts new cylinders in old locks which are still good for as little as $2.50 per lock. It's in the cyiinder the weak- ness of locks lies. The insurance ap- plies to the remade locks as well as the new ones. New locks which will open only by means of keys that can't be duplicated at a local hardware store and are registered in the central office of the lock company, which keeps a record of each key owner, come as low as $4.80, including the insurance. ‘The reason the company can dare the insurance offer is because the keys are made with such precision that one- thousandth of an inch variation in their manufacture would sacrifice their own underwriter's policy, so the keys are most exact pieces of work. There are 28,000 variations of the ocuttings possible in the ordinary lock key, but 10,000,000 in this finely machined key. It isn't likely Mr. Burglar would be able to find the right key for a lock opened with such a complicated mech- anism as this! Burglars seldom tamper with locks that are hard to open, according to the manufacturers of the pick-proof lock. Six houses were entered and robbed recently in one street of a Long Island town. Investigation showed that all had back doors equipped with “bit-key” locks. A bit- key lock opens with one of those skinny, long-handled keys of which there are only four types. The bur- glars apparently had all four, found the one that fit, walked in. When they came to a house with its hard-to-open back lock, they simply skipped it and went on to its neighbor. * Bit-key locks have to be replaced before the manufacturer of pick-proof locks will give the insurance policy, | but he will gladly rebuild a lock made by another manufacturer, if it is of the tumbler variety. Another thing you can do—with & | houseful of pick-proof locks—is have | one key to open them all—the front oor, the back, the garage, your car, | your desk, the wine cellar, etc. We saw one key open 17 different locks, 2933 Benton Sl'ree N.W An_opportunity to scquire a beautifully built and well in the finest residential section SPECT : N ul St riém to’ Benton and left to home. pen Sunday, 11 to 5 SANDOZ, INC. Washi family combined with excellent facillties ington. An id for ‘entertainm Mass. Ave. to 30th 2 Dupont Circle —because you will ind fully de: AIR CONDITIONED FOR Cathedral Avenue; 1730 K STREET START HERE in looking for your new home desirable—only 15 minutes from downtown. —and because you will find this new home care- ned with attention to details for making the whole family comfortable. This, and two other new homes, facing Dexter Circle now ready. Seeing them for yourself gives you a complete picture of the newest and best of present day home values. An Electric Kitchen Health Home DRIVE OUT TODAY. Ge 1 lef south on 44th Strest Three sevares (s Ll Brmminge S “Westwood” larly YEAR 'ROUND COMFORT ssachusetts Avenue to 44th Street; then - 5 gnllt Rend. NATIONAL 2040 el Simpson. The transaction was made through the office of —Star Staff Photo. varying in size from an automatic latch lock for a kitchen cabinet to a big rimlock on the front door. Buy- ing pick-proof locks is one of the cheapest forms of burglar insurance we know. TU’RNTNG night into day is a popu- lar pastime—in more ways than one. Certainly many are the head- aches which would disappear if more people coaxed daylight into the lamps they use to read by at night. For it 15 no longer impossible, nor even very costly to accomplish. ‘We have found an adapter and a filter which fit over the usual fixture, whether lamp or ceiling, and which turn the light of an ordinary electric bulb into the whiter light known as daylight. This is much easier on the eyes and & great conserver of nervous energy. If you do much looking at the printed page you ought to have one. Uncorrected electric light has a great deal of color in it, although you may have thought it practically white. The red end of the spectrum passes through ordinary lamp glass. More of it is blocked and more of the biue end of the spectrum comes through the daylight equipment, thus making & nearer match to daytime light. It's the filter which does it. Any lamp can be turned into a daylight lamp by fitting an adapter, which is & bell-shaped inner shade around the bulb, then fitting over its open end like & 1id a piece of daylight- producing glass called a filter. With & decorative shade over the whole thing, your pet French, English or Colonial lamp becomes modernly utili- tarian. Or you can buy lamps for from $17.50 each. This price is for a desk lamp, but there are floor models, 100, Be careful in placing your lamp. If you can see its bulb reflected in a mirror held in your lap, then the lamp is wrong for reading. It should be imposaible to see the bulb in the mir- ror, if you are being 100 per cent kind to your eyes. RIP! Drip! Does the sound make your blood run oold when you have retired at night leaving the bath room door open? Nothing is more aggravating than the sound of water trickling from a defective faucet. And until recently it was mighty expensive to fix, too. Now with the invention of & new plumber’s tool, the source of the drip can be corrected without ripping out a tiled wall to get at concealed fixtures, It costs 10 cents in actual materials to repair a corroded “seat,” the name of the threaded base of a plumbing fixture, plus the plumber’s time (about 15 minutes). This, compared with about $8 per fixture for ripping out and replacing a seat, makes the re- seater a pretty handy tool. The life of a faucet is practically Two NEW Homes SHEPHERD PARK 16th Street et Geranium YOU will appreciate the fine quality of design and workmanship two really charming new residences. that has gone into these Each of them has FIVE bedrooms, THREE baths, recrea- tion room, TWO-car brick garage, OIL heat and numerous sp-zial refinements evident upon in- spection. THIS 15 AN ELECTRIC KITCHEN *FURNISHED *HEATED OPEN Convenient terms may be arranged! 7325 16th Street N.W. 19,500 *1445 Geranium St. N.W. $22,500 Worthy of Inspection ! J. Wesley Buchanan, Inc. 916 15th STREET REALTOR METRO. 1143 In OVERBROOK *1. A Restricted Environment *2. R Well Balanced Investment *3. F.H.A. Supervised Construc- tion o $4,4QQ 5o=e *1. Fifty acres of beautiful rolling Marylend ocountryside between the Woodmont and Columbia Country Clubs. A restricted small home develop- ment in the path of increasing values. Your family’s future is protected. *2. The annual report of the Federal Housing Administration says: “The principle of balance should be applied to individual deals. Purchasing beyond one’s ability to pay eventually leads to fore- closure.” Every Carefree Cottage is designed to fit the size of your budget as well as the size of your family. *3. The Architecturai Housing Administration makes regular Cottage while under construction. of every Section of the Federal inspections Carefree Your plans and specifieations are faithfully eze- B2 e after o rensonable insurance, interest and pay in 234 months, , will include danes, single morigage A sample home, furnished by Horsce Dulin, Inc., is open from . m. 0 9 . m, for your inspec- tion. Drive out to 7777 Wisconsin Avenus. This 1s about one-half mile beyond fiu' Bank of Beth- esda on the Rockville Pike, THE NEWBOLD DEVELOPMENT 60. 7611 Wisconsin Ave.; Bethesda, Md. Phone Wlsconsin 5286, R arwasLe_BURLY 15 NONESTLY, BRILY, APRIL 17, 1837. REAL ESTATE. a5 == e s eternal, apart from the one weak spot, the seat, which performs the func- tion of shutting off the water. It is subject to corrosion because it is made of brass, upon which the action of chemicals in the water often infiict many little perforations. The new tool makes it possible to reach in and cut away the sick brass, then insert & new seat, without removing the ::.uumwbruklnlmmmmflhd It you have s shower over your bath tub, with two faucets suppiying it and two more faucets supplying the tub with hot and cold water, then you might have to pay as much as $25 10 830 to repiace the seat of each | {aucet, in the event it wears at the Seat. The tool costs about $25 and most plumbers are getting them these days. Once the new seat is in, it is #00d for two years; then it's necessary to get another 10-cent seat and pay for 15 more minutes of a plumber's time. But what pleasure to be rid of drip-dripping! VEST-POCKET RADIATORS New Units 40 Per Cont Smaller Are Developed. Heating experts have constructed a graceful unit 40 per cent smaller in space without loss in efficiency. Many sizes are available to fit into almost any niche or setting. These “vest- pocket” radiators are adapted equally for steam, hot water, vapor, or vacuum heating systems. Old houses are brought up to date by their use, and HOMES FURNISHED EXHIBIT HOME No. 19 EAST WOODBINE STREET smartness is added to new construc- tion. In the modernization of old build- ings more room space is made available by the installation of these smaller units, and vastly improved radiation and general heating service 1s provided. AN EXCLUSIVE LO Beautiful Argyle Park, Corner 17th and Buchanan, at a Real Sacrifice 4511 I7th STREET N.W. Splendid Corner for Doctor OPEN DAILY AND SUNDAY FOR INSPECTION Beautifully situoted on large corner lot, 50x138 (not counting parking), in beautiful Argyle Park, Washington's most convenient exclusive section. Center-hall plan, with large concrete porch opening off living room and large sun parlor opening off dining room. Extra large kitchen and pantry—new range, electric refrig- erator and incinerator. The entire arrangement of this Ist floor is most unique, with its extra large, bright rooms—2nd floor has four lovely bedrooms and two complete baths—+ull attic over entire house. New Quiet May il burner. Large ook trees—rose bushes and shrubbery make the yard very attractive—2-car brick garage—20 ft. paved alley There is no better section in Washintgon, and no better value for home and investment. Drive owt 16th to Buchanan, west one block to house. Or call us day or night for inspection. METZLER—Realtor 1106 Vermont Ave. DIst. 8600 SUNDAY AND NIGHTS—AD. 0620 SHOWING IN WOODBINE CHEVY CHASE, MD. % ® » = Six rooms and two baths to eight rooms, (4 bed rooms) and three baths Chevy Chase, Md. Modern in every detail. Imation: One-half block east of Connecticut Avenue at Woodbine Street, Construction: All-beick, air-conditioned, Douglas fir lumber throughout. Charm: Designed by Louis R. Moss, distinguished Washington archi- teet. ‘We urge you to inspect this unusual group of new homes. OPEN DAILY AND SUNDAY Drive out Comn. Ave. to Woodbine Street, Chevy Chase, Md., turn right one-half square to proverty. M. B. SWANSO K. B. TOOLE SALES BUILDER YOU will be well repaid by visiting this unusual floral display. While driving through Kenwood during Cherry Blossom time, imagine your future home surrounded by this rare beauty that can be found in no other residential community in the United States. F YOU care to participate in the Cherry Blossom Photographic Contest, a picture taken with the most inexpensive camera may win the first prize. Rules for this contest may be obtained by calling Wisconsin 4425, or you may eall personally at the Field Office, 50 Kennedy Drive. ennedxj-aum[)er]in' Deve‘opmefi{: Co. KENWOOD OFFICE, KENNEDY DRIVE AND CHAMBERLIN AVE. Wisconsin. 4425 To reach Kenwood, drive out Connecticut Avenue to Chevy Chase Circle, west on Grafton Street, through Somerset to Kenwood, or out Wisconsin Avenue to Dorset Avenue, west on Dorset Avenue through Somerset to Kemwood, or out Conmnecticut or Wisconsin Avenue to Bradley Lane and west on Bradley Lang to Kenwood. -