Ocean Howell
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226141398
- eISBN:
- 9780226290287
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226290287.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter deals with New Deal home finance agencies, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and particularly the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), paying special attention to their role on ...
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This chapter deals with New Deal home finance agencies, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and particularly the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), paying special attention to their role on the West Coast. This perspective reveals that the practices of these agencies varied by region in ways that have not been appreciated. Most surprisingly, the HOLC described race in very different ways, depending upon region and upon city. For San Francisco all of this meant that the agencies did encourage disinvestment, though not in precisely the ways that urban historians have come to expect. While many have portrayed HOLC redlining as the death knell of a residential neighborhood, in San Francisco being shaded red on the Corporation's Residential Security Map was a poor predictor of an area's future prospects. The residential areas that could expect significant problems, stemming from a dearth of mortgage lending, were those that the HOLC did not survey at all--what this study refers to as the no-lined areas. The northern areas of the Mission District were no-lined, while the central Mission was shaded red on the maps. HOLC described the latter areas as white in spite of a large Latino presence.Less
This chapter deals with New Deal home finance agencies, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and particularly the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), paying special attention to their role on the West Coast. This perspective reveals that the practices of these agencies varied by region in ways that have not been appreciated. Most surprisingly, the HOLC described race in very different ways, depending upon region and upon city. For San Francisco all of this meant that the agencies did encourage disinvestment, though not in precisely the ways that urban historians have come to expect. While many have portrayed HOLC redlining as the death knell of a residential neighborhood, in San Francisco being shaded red on the Corporation's Residential Security Map was a poor predictor of an area's future prospects. The residential areas that could expect significant problems, stemming from a dearth of mortgage lending, were those that the HOLC did not survey at all--what this study refers to as the no-lined areas. The northern areas of the Mission District were no-lined, while the central Mission was shaded red on the maps. HOLC described the latter areas as white in spite of a large Latino presence.
Price V. Fishback, Jonathan Rose, and Kenneth Snowden
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226082448
- eISBN:
- 9780226082585
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226082585.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This book is an economic history of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). The HOLC was government corporation created under the New Deal to refinance home mortgage loans in danger of foreclosure, ...
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This book is an economic history of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). The HOLC was government corporation created under the New Deal to refinance home mortgage loans in danger of foreclosure, passed at the beginning of the Roosevelt administration in 1933 with overwhelming support from Congress and a broad set of interest groups. The challenge for HOLC officials was to design a program that could deliver relief to loan borrowers while still securing the voluntary participation of lenders and not imposing unjustifiably large costs on taxpayers. Ultimately, the HOLC was effective in purchasing a large number of loans because it often paid lenders all or nearly all of the debts they were owed. At the same time, the HOLC delivered relief to borrowers by implementing relatively liberal loan terms and patient servicing practices but typically only small or no debt relief. The relief provided by the HOLC was broadly effective at helping borrowers avoid foreclosure and by doing so the intervention helped prevent declines in house prices and home ownership in some local markets. However, the program did not reverse all of the damage from the foreclosure crisis of the 1930s, and the HOLC ultimately foreclosed on 19 percent of its own loans. Financially, the HOLC’s loan refinancing program was responsible for a modest loss to US taxpayers, equal to about 2 percent of the value of its loan portfolio, once all of its explicit and implicit costs are taken into account.Less
This book is an economic history of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). The HOLC was government corporation created under the New Deal to refinance home mortgage loans in danger of foreclosure, passed at the beginning of the Roosevelt administration in 1933 with overwhelming support from Congress and a broad set of interest groups. The challenge for HOLC officials was to design a program that could deliver relief to loan borrowers while still securing the voluntary participation of lenders and not imposing unjustifiably large costs on taxpayers. Ultimately, the HOLC was effective in purchasing a large number of loans because it often paid lenders all or nearly all of the debts they were owed. At the same time, the HOLC delivered relief to borrowers by implementing relatively liberal loan terms and patient servicing practices but typically only small or no debt relief. The relief provided by the HOLC was broadly effective at helping borrowers avoid foreclosure and by doing so the intervention helped prevent declines in house prices and home ownership in some local markets. However, the program did not reverse all of the damage from the foreclosure crisis of the 1930s, and the HOLC ultimately foreclosed on 19 percent of its own loans. Financially, the HOLC’s loan refinancing program was responsible for a modest loss to US taxpayers, equal to about 2 percent of the value of its loan portfolio, once all of its explicit and implicit costs are taken into account.
Andrew R. Highsmith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226050058
- eISBN:
- 9780226251080
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226251080.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Between 1900 and 1940, Flint rose to prominence as the manufacturing hub for General Motors. As America’s national obsession with automobiles took root, Flint, a quintessential company town, ...
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Between 1900 and 1940, Flint rose to prominence as the manufacturing hub for General Motors. As America’s national obsession with automobiles took root, Flint, a quintessential company town, attracted tens of thousands of migrants to work in its manufacturing and assembly plants. This rapid, largely unplanned growth spawned a series of housing, utility, and public health emergencies that shocked company officials, city commissioners, and members of the local housing industry. The bulk of this chapter explores local efforts to resolve the housing crisis during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and the racial, spatial, and economic considerations that drove Flint’s interwar building program. During this period, local citizens and government administrators from the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) hardened the residential color line by encouraging the spread of racially restrictive housing covenants and formalizing mortgage redlining programs. By the beginning of World War II, redlining and other forms of policy-driven segregation had helped make Flint one of the most racially divided cities in the United States. Ironically, though, dozens of working-class suburbs just beyond Flint’s borders, many of them all white, also suffered during this period due to the FHA’s suburban redlining policies.Less
Between 1900 and 1940, Flint rose to prominence as the manufacturing hub for General Motors. As America’s national obsession with automobiles took root, Flint, a quintessential company town, attracted tens of thousands of migrants to work in its manufacturing and assembly plants. This rapid, largely unplanned growth spawned a series of housing, utility, and public health emergencies that shocked company officials, city commissioners, and members of the local housing industry. The bulk of this chapter explores local efforts to resolve the housing crisis during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and the racial, spatial, and economic considerations that drove Flint’s interwar building program. During this period, local citizens and government administrators from the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) hardened the residential color line by encouraging the spread of racially restrictive housing covenants and formalizing mortgage redlining programs. By the beginning of World War II, redlining and other forms of policy-driven segregation had helped make Flint one of the most racially divided cities in the United States. Ironically, though, dozens of working-class suburbs just beyond Flint’s borders, many of them all white, also suffered during this period due to the FHA’s suburban redlining policies.
Price Fishback, Jonathan Rose, and Kenneth Snowden
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226082448
- eISBN:
- 9780226082585
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226082585.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter introduces the HOLC by exploring how it provided relief to one borrower, Joshua C. from Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, who faced foreclosure in 1934 due to a lower market value for his house, ...
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This chapter introduces the HOLC by exploring how it provided relief to one borrower, Joshua C. from Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, who faced foreclosure in 1934 due to a lower market value for his house, less income, and medical debts. The chapter also provides an overview of the book and a summary of its principal findings.Less
This chapter introduces the HOLC by exploring how it provided relief to one borrower, Joshua C. from Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, who faced foreclosure in 1934 due to a lower market value for his house, less income, and medical debts. The chapter also provides an overview of the book and a summary of its principal findings.
