A milestone passed virtually unnoticed at the end of 1976. In the first six years of the decade of the 1970’s, the nation’s housing inventory secured a net addition of approximately 11.5 million units, a level of increase surpassing that of any full intercensal decade in the nation’s history. Subsequently, in 1977 and 1978, over 4 million additional private-housing starts were initiated-including near-record annual totals of single-family units-thus ensuring the destiny of the 1970’s as the most prolific housing decade ever.