DooR sAtEs

Experience! That's Why More Dealers Have Selected Dataline Than Any Other Computer System.

For over 12 years Dataline's onlg business has been helping building supply dealers and home centers build their businesses. We speak your language. Direct, results-oriented dealer language.

And only Dataline can meet the special needs of euerg customer, regardless of size or inventory mix. The Unique New System 525 is designed and priced to help smaller dealers get bigger.

The Versatile System 2O0O is designed to help large single- and multi-unit dealers increase operating efficiency.

Ditaline Cu3tomers Become "Business Partners"

No company can match Dataline's lictal Support hogram. Highly trained teams, assigned to each customer, provide

- o Specialized analysis of customer's operating procedures and enhancement of programs for maximum effectiveness. r-l(-

ComputerSystems for Building Supply Dealers/Home Centers

4 Danbury Road, Wilton, CT 06897

QO3\762-2473 o Comprehensive training of personnel. o Program updating through direct contact and periodic user conferences. o Q,uick-response servicing of computer equipment. The results? It is commonplace for Dataline customers to increase gross margins by as much as five percentage points and achieve investment payback within eight to ten months of start-up. lsn't it time you, too, became a Dataline "Business Partner"? We promise you a most rewarding exPenence.

The

Publisher Emeritus A.D. Bell, Jr.

Editor-Publisher David Cutler

Associate Editor Juanita Lovret

Assistant Editor Ken Spears

Contributing Editors Dwight Curran, Al Kerper, Gage

McKinney, Ken Thim

Art Director Martha Emery

Staff Artist Carole Shinn

Circulation Dorothea Creegan

The Merchant Magazine (USPS 796-56000) is published monthly at 4500 Campus Dr., Suite 4t0, Newport Beach, Ca.92660, phone (714) 549-E393, by The Merchant Magazine, Inc. Second-class postage rates paid at Newport Beach, Ca., and additional offices. Advertisine rates upon request.

Adyertising Offices

FROM WASHINGTON STATE, IDAHO. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA & OREGON: contact D.vid Cutler, 4500 Campus Dr., Suite zE0, Newport Beach, Ca.92660. Phone (714) 549-8393.

FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: contact Crrl Vann, 205 Oceano Dr., Los Angeles, Ca. 90O19. Phone (21 3) 472-3113 ot (7 14) 549-8393.

I'ROM THE MIDWEST: contact Wryne Westlrnd, I 109 Willow Lane, Mt. Prospect, Il. ffi56. Call (312) 437-7377.

FROM THE NORTHEAST: Joe Shea, 6l MaineAve. F-4, Rockville Centre, N.Y. I1570. CaU (516) 678-1625.

FROM THE SOUTHEAST: contact Corinne Ccrny, 638 Rae Dr., Lawrenceville, Ca. 3OA5. Call (4M\ 972-6689.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Change of Address-Send subscription orders and address changes to Circulation Dept., The Merchant Magazine, 4500 Campus Dr., Suite 480, Newport Beach, Ca.9266O.Include address label from recent issue if possible, plus new address and zip code.

Subscription Rates-

U.S.: $9-one year; $15-two years; $20-three years. Foreign: $20-one year; $35-two years. Single copies $2. Back copies $3 when available.

No More Roller Coaster?

IJOUSING is the biggest single market for Jllumber and other building products. But when home building gets a cold, the lumber industry gets pneumonia, as was amply demonstrated in the housing depression of 1980-1982.

Much of the cause of that sickening decline was the disease of high interest rates, specifically high mortgage rates. At one point as mortgage rates rose, more than 90q0 of the public couldn't afford a new home.

Today we are just beginning to see the results of the desperate scramble by the financial community and builders to find ways to make mortgages more affordable. The adjustable rate mortgage, which had a scant one percent of the market in 1980, now commands an amazing 4o/o of all mortgages. If only savings and loans are surveyed, the figure rises to an even more amazing 49t/o These remarkable data are from a study just released by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., better known as Freddie Mac.

The numbers indicate that nothing less than a revolution has occurred in the way almost half our home buyers finance their homes. And that it happened in approximately three years is nothing short of remarkable. Remember the Bad Old Days when we were all saying something had to be done? It appears it was.

While the adjustable rate mortgage may not be the public's favorite, indeed it was slow to gain initial favor, it nevertheless has enabled the high percentage of first time buyers who purchased a home last year to find a way to affordability, even if it wasn't especially to their liking. The downside risks of the instruments have been well publicized. Unfortunately, the potential cost burdens they impose are all too real.

The fascinating aspect is that the financial community may at last be onto a way to eliminate the harsher cycles in home building. The potential benefit to the suppliers to home building is nothing short of enormous.