Gelebrating the big seven.o

THE occasion of a 70th birth- t day for any firm calls foramajor celebration and the Frost Hardwood Lumber Co. did just that on its 70th by having more than 600 guests in to look over their new four acre Miramar facility on the northern edge of San Diego, Ca. Contrary to inaccurate reports appearing elsewhere, the new facility is an addi-

Story at a Glance

Family owned hardwood firm celebrates 70th blrthday and the opening of an additlonal facility.

tion to their downtown San Diego facility, which the company intends to operate permanently.

Included on the multi-acre Miramar site is a 29,000 sq. ft. warehouse, built by San Antonio Pole Construction Co.; the only dry kiln in San Diego County; and a spe-

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Housing & the Ballot Box

Record high interest rates have forced the housing inlustry into its worst production slump since World War lI and have priced all but the wealthy out of the housing narket, warned Herman J. Smith, president of the Na.ional Association of Home Builders, in testimony refore the House Subcommittee on Housing and Comnunity Development.

Smith warned that unless the Congress and the Adninistration did something soon to bring down interest 'ates, the shortage of affordable housing would become a najor "ballot box issue" in the 1982 and 1984 elections.

At today's 17 %0/o mortgage interest rate, the payrirent rn a modest $60,000 mortgage loan is $880 a month, ilmost double the payment of two years ago and requirng an annual income of almost $40,000, Smith noted. 'Virtually no first-time buyers qualify for a home at .hose interest rates. "

Estimating demand at morethan 2 million new housing units annually throughout the 1980s, he said that the nation's housing shortfall, between this year and last, already amounted to 2 million units. Smith said that the August single-family starts rate was 61.2s/o below the peak rate in 1978 and the lowest level of single-family building since the government began keeping those figures.

Total housing starts in l98l may end up at only 1.07 million units, Smith predicted. But, he cautioned, without a sharp decline in interest rates soon, the current housing recession could deepen next year. The September unemployment rate of 16.390 in the construction trades, he said, would likely increase to l99o by Christmas, before going higher yet in early 1982.

Smith said that Administration proposals to impose a ceiling upon the Government National Mortgage Association's (GNMA) purchase of non-subsidized FHA mortgages and VA-guaranteed loans would further undermine housing opportunities for first-time buyers and veterans and have a severe impact on the housing industry. FHA and VA mortgages, at no cost to the government, represent "the only significant source of fixedrate, long-term mortgages" now available to home buyers, Smith said. In last year's depressed market, they accounted for 22Vo of total housing starts, he said.

Wood Exports Decline

Wood products exports from the United States for l98l are forecast to decline for the first time in five years. A major dip in the Japanese housing market, the European recession, and a rapidly rising U.S. dollar are sharply dampening shipments.

Total exports are down 27s/o for the first several months of the year. National Forest Products Association forecasts they will total $3.1 billion and be down 169o for all of l98l versus 1980. Because these figures reflect sharply lower prices from the prior year, the dip in volume will not be as great as that reflected in dollars.

Softwood plywood provides the only stellar performance of U.S. export statistics, showing a 450/o increase for the first seven months, due mainly to an increase in shipments to Canada, the British Columbia strike, and a 2490 increase in shipments to Europe. U.S. imports of wood products were up l39o for seven months and will probably be up l09o and total $3.3 billion for the entire vear.