[kasey_junk]

The pre-war/post war duality is easy to understand. The US made it official policy to increase homeownership. The government subsidizes housing for all income levels and there was tons of housing built.

The post-war era has seen only minor changes in homeownership rates. And those tend to be around macro economic events like 2008 and Covid (and the Reagan era mortgage rates woof).

[mulmen]

Thanks that’s very interesting. Why was pre-war homeownership low? Did more people rent their homes?

[kasey_junk]

Yes. And there was much more variation in the types of housing. Employer provided forms/bunk houses, flop houses, tenements, boarding houses, etc.

Importantly the quality of the housing was in many cases horrendous.