OCR Text |
Show 'BUILDING COSTS TO DECREASE WITH OPA DEATH Death of OPA, foreshadowed by the recent decontrol of lumber and building material products, means home-building costs can be decreased. de-creased. Norman P. Mason, North Chelmsford, Mass., dealer and the president of the National Retail Lumber Dealers Association, of Washington, D. C, stated today. "We demonstrated last July that removing controls would not cause building costs to rise unnecessarily," unnecessar-ily," Mr. Mason said. "We believe they will not now, though naturally natural-ly there will be adjustments in items in short supply. This is the first constructive step taken to meet the needs for more housing. Now we will get increased production, produc-tion, particularly in the bottle-neck items which have been holding up the completion of homes. Now builders will have the courage to start building again. So far, so good." Ceiling prices of many items have been sufficiently high to permit per-mit manufacturers to recover costs and a reasonable profit, but the exceptions ex-ceptions to this fact prevented a steady flow of a balanced stock of housing construction items, Mr. Mason explained. "Items in short supply such as flooring, sheathing, siding, finish, and millwork can now be produced," produc-ed," Mr. Mason said. "Freedom to produce all items for home construction con-struction at a fair price with a reasonable profit should result almost al-most immediately in an improved flow of all items of lumber through the normal channels of distribution, distribu-tion, retail lumber and building material dealers. Legitimate costs of a few items of lumber may go up temporarily until greater production pro-duction brings a more ample sup- ply but competition will hold prices pric-es at a reasonable level and perhaps per-haps force some down." |