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of 9,906,000 nonfarm habitable dwelling units, 30 percent of the nonfarm total, either needed major repairs or lacked essential plumbing facilities.

In urban areas in November 1945, 5,346,000 dwelling units, or 22 percent of the total, needed major repairs or lacked a private bath and toilet. More than half of the rural nonfarm units, 52 percent, were in the same state of disrepair or in need of plumbing facilities. Table 45 presents the November 1945 data for urban and rural nonfarm areas showing for vacant and occupied

units the number in good condition or needing repairs, and the number of units in each category needing interior plumbing facilities or lacking running water. The change in each category for the 1940 number is also shown.

According to the November 1945 survey, and even after making allowance for errors of sampling, there was some improvement in the quality of the nonfarm housing inventory. The proportion of nonfarm units not needing major repairs and with private bath and toilet, 62 percent in 1940,

Table 46.-State of repair and plumbing equipment: Nonfarm dwelling units by type of structure and geographic region, 1940

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1 Data for "all dwelling units" include "other dwelling places" which are excluded from breakdown by type of unit. Data for the various types therefore do not check to the totals.

Includes detached, attached, and semidetached (2-family side-by-side) units.

Corresponds to "2-family other" classification of Bureau of the Census, 2-family side-by-side units being included as 1-family in this table.
Includes all units in structures with 3 or more units, also units in buildings which include businesses.

Source: Bureau of the Census.

increased to 70 percent by 1945. The proportion of nonfarm units needing major repairs showed a corresponding decrease from 14 percent in 1940 to 10 percent in 1945. In urban areas the proportion of dwelling units in good condition and with private bath increased from 71 percent in 1940 to 78 percent in 1945, while in rural nonfarm areas this proportion rose more markedly from 36 percent in 1940 to 48 percent in 1945.

New dwelling units built in the years 1940-45 account in great part for the improvement in average condition and facilities of the nonfarm housing inventory.

Roughly 250,000 of these new dwelling units, although properly classified as in good condition and containing private baths and toilets, were temporary family dwellings constructed under the public war housing program. According to law, these units are substandard and must be removed not later than 2 years after the end of the war emergency. In addition, the Government encouraged and offered financial assistance for conversion

operations during the war years as a quick method of providing housing accommodations for war workers. Thus, a considerable number of the most readily convertible or salvageable structures were brought into use during the war years thereby adding to the number of units in good condition. These two factors, however, do not alone explain the increase from 1940 to 1945 of 4,735,000 nonfarm dwelling units in good condition and with private bath and flush toilet. Many existing units particularly in rural nonfarm areas undoubtedly were improved by major repair jobs or the addition of plumbing facilities during the war years. Such improvement may be related to the shift of a large number of dwelling units from tenant to owner occupancy and the fact that as a result of wartime earnings many families could afford for the first time to undertake needed repairs or purchase long deferred equipment.

Since the November 1945 survey provided national data only, it is necessary to turn to the census of 1940 for regional information on the

Table 47.—State of repair and plumbing equipment: Occupied and vacant nonfarm dwelling units by geographic

region, 1940

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state of repair and plumbing equipment of dwelling units. Table 46 contains a summary by geographic region of nonfarm dwelling units showing by type of unit the number needing major repairs or lacking private bath and toilet. Similar regional information is presented in table 47 separately for occupied and vacant nonfarm dwelling units.

In 1940 only 10 percent of the nonfarm dwelling units inside metropolitan districts needed major repairs. Of the nonfarm dwelling units away from metropolitan centers, 21 percent needed major

repairs. Similarly 16 percent of the nonfarm units within metropolitan areas were in good condition but lacked private bath and toilet as against 37 percent of the nonfarm units outside such areas. Table 48 presents further data on state of repair and plumbing equipment of dwelling units inside and outside of metropolitan areas.

Estimates of Substandard Housing

Almost all estimates in which an attempt was made to include provision for the elimination and replacement of substandard units are based on

Table 48.-State of repair and plumbing equipment: Nonfarm and rural farm dwelling units inside and outside metropolitan districts, 1940

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data showing the state of repair and plumbing equipment of dwelling units. In most of these estimates, the assumption is generally made that the total number of nonfarm dwelling units needing major repairs can broadly be classified as substandard and in need of replacement (or rehabilitation, if possible, through a major renovation job). Differing assumptions have been made however, as to what proportion of the nonfarm units in good condition but lacking private bath and toilet should be considered substandard.

One point of view is that all nonfarm dwelling units not containing the essential plumbing facilities are substandard. A less extreme stand is that only urban units lacking private bath and private = flush toilet should be included in an estimate of total substandard units.10

An even more conservative criterion was used by the NHA in the estimate of housing needs." It is one which classifies all units not in need of major repairs but without private bath and private flush toilet substandard if they are within metropolitan districts.

While the need of major repairs or lack of bath and toilet in urban areas does not necessarily indicate that an individual dwelling should be torn

Dr. J. Frederic Dewhurst, Economist for the Twentieth Century Fund, presented estimates embodying this assumption. See Hearings before Special Committee to Study and Survey Problems of Small Business Enterprises, Senate, 79th Cong., 1st sess. (May 1945). 7649, 7656 (Problems of American Small Business series, pt. 64). Dr. Dewhurst's estimates were taken from a preliminary mimeographed draft of a Twentieth Century Fund study, Estimated Capital Requirements, 1946-60. Estimates in this study have been quoted in a number of other publications.

10 P. M. Hauser and A.J. Jaffe in The Extent of the Housing Shortage (Law and Contemporary Problems, Duke University School of Law, Winter Issue, 1947), include estimates based on this assumption in the alternative estimates they present. The estimates to be included in the final revision of the Twentieth Century Fund study, Estimated Capital Requirements, 1946-60 will have substandard replacement requirements based upon this assumption.

"See Housing Needs. A Preliminary Estimate, National Housing Agency, NHA Bulletin 1, November 1944.

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Chapter II

Tenure and Rent

Since home ownership has long been the objective of most American families it is pertinent to observe the shifts in tenure which have occurred over a long period of years. All the data upon which this chapter is based have been obtained from the decennial censuses from 1890 to 1940, and from the special survey conducted by the Census Bureau in November 1945 in connection with the Monthly Report on the Labor Force.

The Census Bureau determined tenure as follows: A unit was classified as owner-occupied if it was owned either wholly or in part by the head of the household or by some related member of his family living in the dwelling unit. All other occupied units were classified as tenant-occupied

TENURE:

Chart 13

NONFARM & FARM DWELLING UNITS, PERCENT OWNER OCCUPIED, 1890-1945

even though cash rent may not have been paid for the unit. Rent-free quarters which were received in payment for services performed are thus classified as tenant-occupied.

Trends of Tenure

Except for the sharp rise in owner-occupancy between 1940 and 1945 the long-term trends have been in opposite directions in farm as compared with nonfarm areas. Thus, as table 49 indicates, in the 50 years from 1890 to 1940, the proportion of owner-occupied units in the United States as a whole declined slowly and fairly consistently within a very narrow range, from 48 percent to 44 percent except for an increase between 1920 Table 49.-Tenure: Nonfarm and farm dwelling units, 1890 to 1945

Occupied dwelling units or families

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Reporting tenure

Year

90

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80

FARM

All areas:

70

1890.

1900

1920

1930

1940

1945

1910.

1920

60

1930

1940.

1945 1

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12, 690, 152 12, 690, 152 6,066, 417 15, 963, 965 15, 428, 987 7, 205, 212 20, 255, 555 19, 781, 606 9, 083, 711 24, 351, 676 23, 810, 558 10, 866, 960 29, 904, 663 29, 321, 891 14, 002, 074 34, 854, 532 34, 854, 532 15, 195, 763 37, 600,000 37, 600, 000 20, 009, 000

7,922, 973 7,922, 973 2, 923, 671| 10, 274, 127 9, 779, 979 3, 566, 809 14, 131, 945 13, 672, 044 5, 245, 380 17, 600, 472 17, 229, 394 7,041, 283 23, 235, 982 22, 854, 935 10, 503, 386 27, 665, 684 27, 665, 684 11, 358, 218 31, 281, 000 31, 281, 000 15, 878, 000

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30

Farm:"

1890

1900

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4,767,179 4,767, 179 3, 142, 746| 5, 689, 838 5, 649, 008 3, 638, 403 6, 123, 610 6, 109, 562 3, 838, 331 3, 825, 677 3, 498, 688 3, 837, 545 4, 131, 000

65.4 2,188,000

58. 12, 755, 487 41.9 54. 12, 968, 268 45.9

53.4 3, 351, 303

46.6

34.6

1 Data for 1945 are based on the sample survey conducted in November 1945 in connection with the Monthly Report on the Labor Force.

In this table, except for 1945, urban farm families are included in the "farm" rather than the "nonfarm" classification.

Source: Bureau of the Census.

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