Elhow Room Project

A remodeling that most homeowners actually need. A do'it'yourself kind of project that sells close to $6O0 in building materials to every customer.

That's the prospectus for the Elbow Room, subject of the newest nation' wide promotion by the Western Wood Products Association.

Consumer advertising and publicity is backing the Elbow Room, and a full range of colorful merchandising aids is ofiered without charge to lumber and building material dealers, de' signed to help steer local demand into the store.

Reaching into the trading area of every retailer, Better Hornes & Car' dens presented its versions of this mini-room concept on {our color pages to its 7.7 million subscribers in November. WWPA is credited as design sponsor.

Popular Science, with LB million subscribers, carried Western Wood's four-page advertisement for the Elbow Room. More magazine and newspaper publicity is planned in early T97T.

All the materials listed in the plans are on the dealer's shelves-framing, siding and paneling lumber, mould' ings, trim, windows, doors, shingles, cement, wiring, glass, paint, stains and hardware.

Home Builders Optimistic

The National Association of Home Builders says the housing recovery is now firmly on the upswing, with every prospect of further improvement through 1971.

They say actual starts of about 1.45 million are "virtually assured" as the total for this year.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has reported October starts rose 3.1 percent from September to a I.55 million annual rate. The rate a year ago was I.39 million.

He pointed also to the likelihood of increased funds for federal housing programs under Sections 235 and 236. "lt now appears that appropriations will be voted for $130 million under Section 235 and $I35 million under 236," he said. These expenditures are for the current fiscal year.

The favorable housing outlook is reinforced by a sharp jump in new building permits issued in October. The 1.51 million annual rate was up from I.37 million in September and I.20 a year ago. It was also the highest number of permits issued in any October by the 13,000 localities requiring them.

New Equipment for Mill

Eastern Oregon Pine Co. at Lakeview, southern Oregon, has installed a new 6f,)" Soderham barker and an S 68 Soderham chipper, according to Ken Rose, vp. and secretary of the company. President of the firm is Al Mclellan and treasurer is David Wvman.

Outlook C<rlled Never Beiler

Despite the "temporary" slump in housing starts, the long.range outlook for the buildiug products manufacturer has, in fact, never been better.

This is the opinion of Alan B. Cook, Masonite Corp. vp. and manager of building products sales.

"Rarely has an industry been faced with such staggering demands for its products and services. There is genuine cause for optimism as the industry gears up for a decade of unprecedented growth," Cook believes.

The industry is being spurred on by what he describes as a critical need for new housing units, and by an inc19as-ef demand for practical new products that are applicable for home modernization and remodeline.

"By official estimate, an additional 25 million new housing units will be needed by the turn of the century. This demand will offer the building industry more chalIenges and opportunities than ever before,,' ihe Masonite executive believes.

Echoing national surveys which indicate that mobile homes and low-cost factory-built homes are the wave of the future, Cook agrees that developments in therc areas "will have signi{icant impact on the building products industry - -particularly those companies whose p.oducts Iend themselves to the modular construction techniques now in vogue."

Maso-nite -Corporation, he says, is anticipating these trends by offering a streamlined product line tiiat has wide appeal for modular builders.

Housing Goql "o Trop"

"A political and economic trap" is how Miles L. CoIean, consulting economist to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America describes the nation,s ten-year goal of 2.6 million housine unirs.

He calls the goal concept inherently disruptive and says that, despite the stream of housing legislation, the program has in fact not produced the desireJresults.

Coleal urges that we "break the bondage ro preconceived legally embodied numbers" and seek increased production without fixed numerical housing goals.

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