Shall I Build A House after the War? How Many Houses Will We
Need? many houses will America need after the war? The answer to
that question isn’t easy since it depends on many factors, some
of which must be guessed at. Let’s try to estimate the size of
the housing market when building materials become available
after the war. The 1940’s began with a great backlog of demand
for better housing, despite the fact that there were about
1,400,000 vacant nonfarm dwelling units in the United States.
During the depression and the immediate prewar years, not enough
new houses were built to take care of the demands. The number of
nonfarm homes built in 1925 reached a peak of nearly a million.
In 1933 there were less than one hundred thousand. A gradual
recovery started after that, however. In 1941, about three-
quarters of a million dwelling units were constructed, but the
war put a stop to the building boom. Owing to the shortage of
housing, we can assume that in most war centers nearly all
houses in livable condition,