Word: levitts
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Susan Steiner '50 and Wilma Levitt '50 bought theirs from a sharp dealer who doubles as a tobacconist. Miss Levitt thereafter disposed of three dozen among her friends...
...housing himself and his family. Today, such speculative merchant-builders as the David D. Bohannon Organization, which is putting up thousands of moderately priced houses around San Francisco, and the traditional but gadgety Gerholz Community Homes in Flint, Mich, account for 80% of production. Biggest of these merchants, Levitt & Sons, has raised a whole town (Levittown, pop. 27,850) of almost identical $7,990 bungalows on the flat potato fields of Long Island. The Levitt boys knock a new house together every 16 minutes, adorn their latest model with such creature comforts as fireplaces as well as modern touches...
...Long Island plot 20 miles from Manhattan, Builders Levitt & Sons put up a trim two-bedroom bungalow. Like other U.S. builders, they knew a slump had curbed real estate sales; many a new house was going begging because the price was too high. But Bill Levitt felt sure there were plenty of buyers, if the house -and price-were right...
...thought his price was right also: $7,990. Veterans could buy the house for $90 down and $58 a month (for 25 years). The monthly payments covered taxes, water, fire insurance, mortgage payments and interest. When Levitt put up a for sale sign, the crowd got so big that police had to keep them in line (see cut). In seven days, Levitt & Sons sold 707 houses, nearly $6,000,000 worth...
Poured Foundations. That kind of big business was nothing new to 42-year-old Bill Levitt. After he got out of the Seabees in 1945, he and brother Alfred, who designs their houses, started building on a semi-mass production basis (TIME, Dec. 23, 1946). They used a huge earth-moving machine to root out foundations, a concrete mixer to move from site to site pouring concrete slabs for house bases (no basements). In 1946 they finished 1,000 homes, sold them to veterans for a shade under...