STATE OF BUSINESS: Boom on Boom

The great U.S. housing boom, which the experts have prematurely buried at regular intervals since World War II, was still setting new records. Housing starts in August, reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics, totaled 111,000, up 19% from a year ago. In Dallas the pace was so fast that there was a shortage of such supplies as wallboard, cement and plumbing equipment. In Levittown, Pa., where Mass Builder William J. Levitt showed off a new three-bedroom, two-living-room house (with garage) for $10,990, some 30,000 people stood in line to inspect it. In one week Levitt wrote orders for more...

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