Housing costs have risen dramatically in recent years, so that many people have been unable to buy a home. Part of this cost increase was due to the high rate of interest on home mortgages, which reached almost 20 percent in some areas of the country before dropping under 13 percent in 1985.

A large part of the increase, however, was due to other factors inflation in the cost of materials and labor, a reduction in the amount of land available for housing, which has drastically increased lot prices, and changes in market patterns leading to larger homes on larger lots. Recent studies by the President's Commissioners on Housing and by a special U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Task Force on Housing Costs confirm the findings of earlier studies which show that ways exist to cut the cost of housing, if they are used. Too often, these studies show, out-of date regulations and building practices prevent these ideas from being applied. In fact, the studies pointed out that many builders and local officials do not even know about many of the ways that exist to reduce housing costs.

This report is part of the collection of scanned historical documents available to the public.