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One secret of Jim Price's success is that he never starts a house down his assembly line before it is sold, thus keeps inventories of finished units down to zero. Another secret is his fleet of 255 huge trailers to deliver houses to building sites within 400 miles of his plant, thus licking the transportation costs that ruined many other prefabbers. Price sells his houses through some 550 builder-dealers around the country, some of whom gross upwards of $500,000 a year. Biggest cluster of National homes: a development of 2,000 units at Fort Wayne, Ind.
Mass & Class. Price has a price for every pocketbook, ranging from two-bedroom houses for $5,500 to three-and four-bedroom "Custom" houses (see cut) for $8,000 to $30,000 (with Indiana lime stone walls optional). On every house, National nets an average $100—enough to make Jim Price a rich man. One hundred shares of National, purchased for $5,000 in 1940, would now total some 60,000 shares (through splits) and be worth more than $3,000,000.
In his mass operation, Price has not neglected style. The 31 models in his 1955 line, now starting in production, were designed by Architect Charles M. Goodman of Washington, D.C. Says Price: "We can fight it out on a mass or class basis. We can provide a home for somebody who hasn't any kind of home, or give a rich man a home where he can entertain a Rockefeller."