HOUSING: Profits v. Shortage

In the Senate investigation into profits on Government-sponsored postwar housing, William J. Levitt, biggest U.S. housebuilder, took the stand last week. How, asked the committeemen, had he done on the thousands of houses he had built with Government-guaranteed mortgages?

Builder Levitt answered readily that he had done very well. On the first 4,028 houses that he built for rent in Levittown, L.I., he made a gross profit of about $5,000,000, which remained in the Bethpage Realty Corp., builder of the houses. Later he sold the Bethpage Realty Corp. to Philadelphia's Junto, a...

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