NEIAAAN I REED LUA,TBER COiAPANY

LARGE tOCAt INVENTORY - OVER 2,OOO,OOO FEET UNDER COVER

July Housing Storts Down But Yeqr's Totol ot Top Rafe

Nonfarm housing starts fell to 126,000 in July, from 136,000 in June, according to preliminary estimates of the Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. A moderate seasonal decrease usually occurs between Tune and July. The July 1959 starts totai was l2/o greater ihart a year ago, and the highest record recorded for July except in 1950.

The 124,500 privately owned dwelling units begun in July represented a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,350,000-down a little from the estimated rate of 1,370,000 for both June and May. When averaged for the first seven months, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of private starts in 1959 amounted to 1,385,000, compared with the relatively low rate of 1,015,000 for the same 1958 period.

By the end of Jaly 1959, a total oI 843,700 new private and public dwelling units had been put under construction, an advance of 30/o over the first seven months of 1958, and almost the same as the seven-month record total of 850,100 in 1950. This year's private total (822,300 units) exceeded by 215,700 units the 1958 private total for the first seven months.

Aisthorpe Lumber Moves to Former Ghico Lumber Site

Aisthorpe Lumber Company, formerly located at 948 Broadway, Chico, has moved into ready-made lumberyard quarters once ocgupied by Chico Lumber Company on Highway 99E just north of Chico. Dealer Fred Aisthorpe's Broadway yard was almost completely destroyed in a $100,000 blaze last February 13 (CLM 4/I/59) and he had been operating from make-shift quarters on the yard since that time.

Although originally planning to rebuild the yard from the ashes up, Dealer Aisthorpe later decided to move into the larger and vacant quarters of Chico Lumber Company, operated at the north end of town until tr,r'o years ago by Robert M. Grant.

Onslow Opens Own P.R. Office

Walton P. Onslow, public relations counsel and convention program manag'er of the National Association of Home Builders since 1946, opened his own public relations office in Washington, D.C., September 1. He will provide a service for clients from the home-building and financing industries throughout the nation, as well as general public relations accounts. In his work for the NAHB, Onslow helped organize the National Housing Center and directed the trade association's biggest coast-to-coast promotion, National Home Week.