Next consider depreciation which is a separate item from
maintenance or upkeep, and is practically nil in the case of the
brick house. Appraisal engineers have estimated it, for the brick
house, at only one per cent a year, beginning after the first
five years. And the one per cent in reality should apply only to
such portions of the building as are subject to wear, as finished
floors, plumbing, hardware, roofs, and the like. Approximately 60
per cent of a well built brick house does not depreciate at all
through a long period of years. On the other hand, a frame house,
according to the same authorities, begins to depreciate from the
day it is finished at from 2 to 3 per cent annually. At the lowest
estimate of 2 per cent a $6,500 frame house would depreciate $130
a year or $1,300 in ten years. A similar house of brick, worth let
us say $7,000, would depreciate, allowing the full one per cent,
$70 a year from the fifth year on, or $350 in ten years. That is,
when you add to the $350 depreciation the $500 excess cost of the
brick house, the resulting $850 is still less by $450 than the
depreciation alone on the frame house. The wear and tear of time do
not allow us to get away from these facts.
[Illustration: Face Brick Bank Building, Detroit. Geo. M. Lindsey
Co., Architects]