The chapter “Federal Subsidy and the Suburban Dream: How Washington Changed the American Housing Market” from Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States by Kenneth T. Jackson contained some very interesting and important points. It described the role the government has played in the housing market, particularly related to suburbanization. I thought it was surprising how much the government influenced the trend of people buying their own homes in the suburbs. I was also surprised by how much of a role racism played in the appraisal of homes by the Home Owners Loan Corporation.
Prior to reading Jackson’s chapter, I hadn’t realized how much mortgages and the concept of home owning were impacted by the Home Owners Loan Corporation. It set an example for long-term loans that make owning a home a reasonable option for many people. Earlier in American history, it was typical for people who owned homes to have bought them outright. Although mortgages became more popular in the 1920s, these mortgages typically had lengths of five to ten years. I had never known this history of mortgages and never realized that the HOLC was the organization that originally provided mortgages similar to those that many people have today.
By making the option of owning homes in the suburbs possible for people, the HOLC greatly contributed to the development of suburbs. I found it interesting how much the government contributed to making this kind of trend in real estate development possible. Many people were critical of the idea of government getting involved in housing. However, when the Great Depression made things worse for people, a significant number of them changed their minds. This type of conflict over whether or not the government should get involved in things is very common and it seems typical that most people favor this involvement only after the issues have gotten worse.
One part of the reading that really made me think was the racism of the HOLC. Jackson describes how areas with African American populations tended to automatically be considered in one of the lowest categories. Reading about this made me wonder whether the appraisers were contributing to the racist attitudes of the time or simply being realistic and responding to those racist attitudes. Since there was definite racism throughout the country at this time and this racism was prevalent in the real estate market, it may have been unrealistic for the HOLC not to take this factor into account when determining the quality of an area for the purpose of real estate values. I do not believe that the intentions of the appraisers were necessarily bad when it came to this topic, however I do think that they did contribute to the racist attitudes of the time.
I found the reading to be thought provoking and relatable to many issues regarding the influence of government. I thought it was unfortunate that the government led the way in housing trends by enabling people to move to suburbs but it simply followed the racial segregation that existed in the housing market.
