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Well Worth Saving

Author

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  • Fishback, Price V.
  • Rose, Jonathan
  • Snowden, Kenneth

Abstract

The urgent demand for housing after World War I fueled a boom in residential construction that led to historic peaks in home ownership. Foreclosures at the time were rare, and when they did happen, lenders could quickly recoup their losses by selling into a strong market. But no mortgage system is equipped to deal with credit problems on the scale of the Great Depression. As foreclosures quintupled, it became clear that the mortgage system of the 1920s was not up to the task, and borrowers, lenders, and real estate professionals sought action at the federal level. Well Worth Saving tells the story of the disastrous housing market during the Great Depression and the extent to which an immensely popular New Deal relief program, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), was able to stem foreclosures by buying distressed mortgages from lenders and refinancing them. Drawing on historical records and modern statistical tools, Price Fishback, Jonathan Rose, and Kenneth Snowden investigate important unanswered questions to provide an unparalleled view of the mortgage loan industry throughout the 1920s and early ’30s. Combining this with the stories of those involved, the book offers a clear understanding of the HOLC within the context of the housing market in which it operated, including an examination of how the incentives and behaviors at play throughout the crisis influenced the effectiveness of policy. More than eighty years after the start of the Great Depression, when politicians have called for similar programs to quell the current mortgage crisis, this accessible account of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation holds invaluable lessons for our own time.

Suggested Citation

  • Fishback, Price V. & Rose, Jonathan & Snowden, Kenneth, 2013. "Well Worth Saving," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226082448, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:bknber:9780226082448
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Fleitas, Sebastian & Fishback, Price & Snowden, Kenneth, 2016. "Economic Crisis and the Demise of a Popular Contractual Form: Building and Loan Mortgage Contracts in the 1930s," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 275, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    2. Terri Friedline & Zibei Chen, 2021. "Digital redlining and the fintech marketplace: Evidence from US zip codes," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 366-388, June.
    3. Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo, 2021. "COVID-19, Race, and Gender," CEPR Discussion Papers 16000, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Sebastian Fleitas & Matthew Jaremski & Steven Sprick Schuster, 2023. "The U.S. Postal Savings System and the collapse of building and loan associations during the Great Depression," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(4), pages 1196-1215, April.
    5. Graziella Bertocchi & Arcangelo Dimico, 2020. "COVID-19, Race, and Redlining," Department of Economics 0175, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    6. Price Fishback, 2017. "How Successful Was the New Deal? The Microeconomic Impact of New Deal Spending and Lending Policies in the 1930s," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1435-1485, December.
    7. James Feigenbaum & Price Fishback & Keoka Grayson, 2020. "Inequality and the Safety Net in American Cities throughout the Income Distribution, 1929–1940," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth, pages 529-567, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Werner Troesken & Randall Walsh, 2017. "Collective Action, White Flight, and the Origins of Formal Segregation Laws," NBER Working Papers 23691, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo, 2020. "COVID-19, Race, and Redlining," GLO Discussion Paper Series 603, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    10. Barry Eichengreen, 2016. "The Great Depression in a Modern Mirror," De Economist, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 1-17, March.
    11. Fetter, Daniel K., 2016. "The Home Front: Rent Control and the Rapid Wartime Increase in Home Ownership," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(4), pages 1001-1043, December.
    12. James J. Feigenbaum & Price V. Fishback & Keoka Grayson, 2020. "Inequality and the Safety Net Throughout the Income Distribution, 1929-1940," NBER Working Papers 27069, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Postel-Vinay, Natacha, 2016. "What caused Chicago bank failures in the Great Depression? A look at the 1920s," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 88844, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. William J. Collins & Gregory T. Niemesh, 2024. "Income Gains and the Geography of the US Home Ownership Boom, 1940 to 1960," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic History of American Inequality: New Evidence and Perspectives, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Bing Chen & Frank P. Stafford, 2019. "A Farewell to ARMs or Ever Changing Market Segments?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 649-672, November.
    16. Dwight M. Jaffee, 2015. "An International Perspective for Mortgage Market Reform," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(S1), pages 59-67, March.
    17. Jonathan D. Rose, 2013. "A primer on farm mortgage debt relief programs during the 1930s," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2013-33, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    18. Jonathan D. Rose, 2022. "Reassessing the magnitude of housing price declines and the use of leverage in the Depressions of the 1890s and 1930s," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(4), pages 907-930, December.
    19. Sebastián Fleitas & Price Fishback & Kenneth Snowden, 2015. "Forbearance by Contract: How Building and Loans Mitigated the Mortgage Crisis of the 1930s," NBER Working Papers 21786, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Kenneth Snowden, 2014. "A Historiography of Early NBER Housing and Mortgage Research," NBER Chapters, in: Housing and Mortgage Markets in Historical Perspective, pages 15-36, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Natacha Postel-Vinay, 2015. "What caused Chicago bank failures in the Great Depression? A look at the 1920s," Working Papers 22, Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Cambridge.
    22. Siodla, James, 2020. "Debt and taxes: Fiscal strain and US city budgets during the Great Depression," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

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