TENANCY IN THE UNITED STATES 489 



of $20 annually to the principal, in the course of about twenty -one 

 years the sum of the principal and the interest would be sufficient 

 to pay the debt of $667. This illustration is given to show that 

 home-owning is not the difficult achievement that some may sup- 

 pose, if the site of the home is immaterial. If a man can save 

 $333, and is able to take $20 out of his annual earnings and in- 

 vest the amount at interest, it is possible for him to fulfill the con- 

 ditions of the example. But, of course, a cheap home cannot be 

 had everywhere ; and lot values are high enough in cities to limit 

 the choice of the poor, and even of the well-to-do. On the other 

 hand, suburban rapid transit and cheap railroad fares have enlarged 

 the field of choice to suburban regions where lot values are low 

 enough to be within the reach of all but the very poor. 



If account is taken of the sales of real estate, its market will 

 seem active to one who thinks that real estate is not easily pur- 

 chasable for want of purchasing power on the part of the people. 

 The activity of the real-estate market, as shown by conveyances 

 in Massachusetts, has been ascertained for the ten years, 1880 to 

 1889. The conveyances were mostly by warranty deeds of titles 

 in fee-simple, but some of them were by quitclaim deeds, usually 

 given to remove clouds upon the title to land already in the pos- 

 session of the grantee. In 1880 there were 37 persons of the 

 entire population, on the average, to each deed made. The 

 highest number of persons was reached in 1885, namely, 39, 

 and the lowest in 1889, 33 persons. Average for the ten years, 

 36 persons ; or one deed annually to about seven families on the 

 average, and one deed during the decade to about seven-tenths of 

 a family. This is for a state that has a denser population per 

 square mile than any other state in the Union except Rhode 

 Island, and denser than any nation in the world except Belgium 

 and the Netherlands. The figures, however, do not indicate 

 whether this activity in purchasing real estate is great among a 

 very small fraction of the population or is pretty well distributed 

 among the masses of the people. 



The foregoing are the conditions under which 52.20 per cent 

 Of the families of the United States are the tenants of their farms 

 and homes. The farm tenants are 34.08 per cent of the entire 



