How Much is There For The Professional? Assuming again the same proportion of dollar expenditures for all housing units as were spent on owner-occupied properties with 1-4 housing units, the total expenditure for all contract work done in 1962 was $5.1 billion dollars, or 83% of the total improvement dollar. This amount includes all work done by contract, whether it was done entirely by supplying labor and materials, or partially. If we should exclude jobs where the contractor supplied only partial labor or materials, this figure, of course, would be lower.

Source: Bureau of the Census C50-7 and NAHB Econ. Dept. estimates

*Paid in full or in part.

(B) IMPROVEMENTS ON NONRESIDENTIAL STRUCTURES. We do not have any information as to how much money we actually spent improving nonresidential properties. As a result, we were tempted to leave this area out of the total estimate of the market scope. After some study we decided to make our own estimates, based on new construction put-in-place series. Presumably, all of the improvement market in nonresidential construction is included in the total dollar volume of new construction. Using partly the experience of the Inter-industry Study done by the Department of Labor we have estimated the total volume of this market in 1962 to be about $3.7 billion dollars, or about 22% of the total dollar expenditure on nonresidential construction putin-place. This figure was compiled from a breakdown of dollar expenditure to: (1) private and public construction; (2) additions, alterations and replacements; (3) and to various types of industry and institutions (see Appendix).

How Much For the Professional? Assuming the same split as experienced in the upkeep market of nonresidential structures (Inter-industry Study), we will have about $1.5 billion dollars for the professional man. Out of this about $1,030,000,000 will be in private construction and $445,000,000 in public construction.

The Total Market For the Professional. It would appear on the surface, before one examines the variations between expenditures, that there is a substantial market. This, however, is not quite true. If we were to use the most optimistic figures--depicting the total expenditures--(whether for all or part of the job) done by contractors supplying either labor or materials, or both, then the total share would be about 67% of every dollar spent on upkeep and improvement. If we deduct the percentage of partly contracted jobs, this figure then most likely would be around 55% or 60%. In any case we cannot look upon the yearly $20 billion expenditures as a scope of the market (see TABLE 12). As we have seen, this is not all for the contractor. Depending then on what percentage we take, the scope of the market would be anywhere from $11 billion dollars to $13.1 billion dollars. Using the estimates we have presented so far, and based upon the total expenditure which includes partial contracts, this would be the upper ceiling of the upkeep and improvement market as of 1962:

TABLE 11

ESTIMATED EXPENDITURES FOR UPKEEP AND IMPROVEMENTS PAID* TO CONTRACTORS
FOR LABOR AND MATERIALS. 1962

Source: Bureau of the Census and NAHB Economics Dept. estimate

APPENDIX

Table I

EXPENDITURES ON ALL RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES. BY TENURE AND SIZE OF PROPERTY, 1962
(In millions of dollars)

Source:

Bureau of the Census, Residential Alterations and Repairs, C50-7, July 1963,
Table 1, p. 9

Total maintenance & repairs-12,084 13,386 14,153 14,379 14,666

1955 1956
15,843 16,978

1957

1958

1959

1960

17,920 117,846 119,252 119,556

6,800 7,500 7,228

1Includes estimates for military facilities and conservation and development.

2Includes only projects of the Dept. of the Army, Corps of Engineers.