The Strength and Weakness of Western Housing Markets

Abstract

to say that in such convictions of strength lie also the possibilities of human weakness. The West today is experiencing a rate and scale of growth in its economy which is of such speculative dimensions and so dynamic in character that, without prudent management and the exercise of self-restraint, business entrepreneurs run the risk of over-supplying the West's markets. The home-building industry is not immune from this risk either, for the industry is only as strong as the local economy which supports it.I As urban housing markets are inherently local in character, this article is concerned primarily with economic developments in the urbanized areas of the western region, herein defined as the eleven states west of the Rocky Mountain Divide and the territories of Alaska and Hawaii. Within this western region, which contains nearly one-half the land area of the United States, live only onesixth of the Nation's population; yet the region in 1956 supported a 12-billion dollar building industry which accounted for one-fourth or more of that year's construction boom in the United States.2